I am extremely pleased to welcome you all to this initiative which has been organised by the University of the South Pacific, through its Faculty of Business and Economics.

We, in Solomon Islands, place great value on the contributions that USP is making to our tertiary level training. Solomon Islands is one of the growth areas for USP enrolments and this growth will continue in the future.

We have grown used to seeing gatherings like this take place at Laucala Campus in Suva where there is a large concentration of USP staff and students.

It is therefore pleasing that USP is going out of its way to organise such a gathering here in Honiara to enable our own stakeholders and actors in development policy to take part in this development dialogue.

I sincerely hope that this is an indicator of continuing policy discussions here in Honiara, among people whose every day work is focused on development issues.

The Solomon Islands government would like to encourage USP to continue with these kinds of initiatives which brings our University closer to our people.

This activity engages our senior public servants and stakeholders in constructive dialogue and debate which - on the one hand can enhance our decision maker understands of policy options – and on the other hand gives USP academics, who guide our students’ learning about development issues, insights into real-world Solomon islands context and in real-time challenges and opportunities.

All governments in the Pacific have great need for consultancy services and expert advice on a broad range of policy areas. Often this advice has come from international experts whose presence is not sustainable over the long term.

It is our wish that USP enhances its capacity to serve our government and people in a broad range of developments that we currently face. But they cannot advise us if they are not interacting with us at the coal-face of development work.

Through exercises of the kind taking place today, USP academics will be better able to align their research and teaching interests with those policy areas where we seek assistance. For instance Solomon Islands government and its people are facing a very challenging period in which we will be negotiating PACER plus with Australia and New Zealand.

This wide agreement has the potential not just to be focused on trade integration but wider economic, social and political relations with Australia and New Zealand which may result in significant benefits for Solomon Islands people if we get our negotiations right.

I hope that USP will further build its current capacity in the area of trade negotiations to serve the region and also involve our students and staff at USP.

I would like to encourage all participants to this development dialogue to engage in healthy debate which not just encourages USP academics to focus on our development problems, but also encourages our key stakeholders to engage in constructive policy discussions.

These discussions can broaden their horizons and their understanding of our own people and about the development options that they are faced with.

That is the essence of a University which our students can absorb and build upon to serve our people in the future.

I note that Solomon Islanders who graduate from USP have been the essential core of our public service since independence. We would like to improve our progression rates to tertiary education and for USP to further strengthen the quality and contribution of our public servants to our country’s development.

By international standards, the Solomon Islands is extremely well endowed with resources which are considered to be the envy of many small developing countries. What we lack is the human resources capacity and higher level professionalism to move our country to a higher economic growth path that will raise the standard of living of our people.

It is pleasing therefore that today’s programme covers such vital areas as public enterprise reform, nature of poverty in the Solomon Islands, critical social policy issues, private sector development and trade negotiation issues which are critical development problems facing our country.

Before I conclude I wish to offer some statements that might be food for thought among the faculty heads of USP and certainly in the vice-Chancellor’s office.

USP has been a part of our lives for many years.

Many of us have happy memories of our time studying at the main campus at Laucala bay, and at campuses in Alafua, Emalus, and lately, in Honiara.

The older campus names are etched in the memories of thousands of our citizens who have passed through their hallways over many years.

Now we have a Honiara campus and hopefully students from other island countries can come and study here as well.

But with slight variations over the years, must USP continue in its current projection, path or direction?

Is it not time to position USP for higher duties in our region?

Let me describe why this thought comes to mind and what USP might consider. I do so from a governance perspective. I can certainly follow up with other discussion papers later.

Government in a country such as ours is very complex. The reality of our archipelagic life requires us to service some 800 islands on which live nearly 500 thousand people in more than 3,000 communities who speak nearly 70 languages and dialects.

Sea and air transport is essential. Fuel costs are high. The further we go from the towns, the harder it is for people to interact in the world economic system. Communication and new technology are becoming more important but will need time and innovation to be accessed by all.

USP knows our history and how that impacts on our affairs today. You know our challenges such as climate change, rapid population growth, urban drift, governance and economic issues.

We believe you have been following our progress – even though in Fiji you have challenges of your own. You can see where we have tried and stumbled, where we have tried and succeeded and how we keep renewing our attempts to deal with the challenges and to take advantage of opportunities.