Papua New Guinea Model To Solomon Islands

                                                   
                                                     COMMENTARY
  By ELLIOT DAWEA
  Divine Word University
  Madang

Today’s Papua New Guinea economic development successful story of transitioning from raw materials into manufacturing industry is a model for us Solomon Islands must emulate.

“This is a clear manifestation of empowering their human resources with accurate skills and knowledge to work in the industrial sectors”

As a matter of fact it alleviates them from importing manufactured goods overseas. This should ring a bell for us to strategically consider how level of human resources in the industrial sector cope with today’s technology to venture into manufacturing industry.

It is extremely impressive to see that PNG produces most of their products such as cordials, biscuits, soaps, noodles, rice, varieties of soft drinks, canned foods, food products and the lists goes on.

Obviously some of their products also sold in supermarkets, shops in Honiara and throughout the country. Such transition has come about because of their best academia utilise their knowledge and skills, that give rise for them to established manufacturing factories; thus there is employment opportunities and it boost their national economy.

Just imagine Papua New Guinea gained his political independence in 1975, three years ahead of Solomon Islands. Now PNG is a model to emulate in terms of human resources that cope with today’s world of science and technology.

Our relevant authorities needs to rethink on how we could improve our industrial sector to ensure the country’s human resources is engaging in attaining relevant knowledge and skills that would empower them to utilise their skills to venture into manufacturing industries.

Our private sectors needs to be strengthened, by injection adequate financial resources, hence they could go into multiple streams to engage in manufacturing our raw materials.

“Don’t look to far we can stop importing cordials, and we could alternate to process our own. Look in the central market in Honiara supplying of pineapple from Malaita gives me a clear picture that it’s possible we can do it”

But it is important the farmers needs assistance, to ensure they meet the requirements of production that is adequate for processing.

“If only we have people with accuarate skills and knowledge then we could start our own factories. It is now time for us to look beyond the horizon and starts something for the betterment of our nation”

Divine Word 32^nd graduation last month is a significant milestone for the government of Papua New Guinea to produce more pool of human resources preparing to work in the government sectors, non-government organisations, and private sectors.

One student tipped me that “PNG is a big country but as our population is increasing rapidly, it is a wakeup call for us; hence education is our top priority to produce best human resources to contribute to the socio-economic developments.

“Our saying in PNG is education is our food garden” the student said.

Solomon Islands are blessed with abundant resources but we need accurate skills and knowledge to develop our resources. It is important to alleviate importing of goods overseas rather than we produce our own products.

“The time to act is now sooner than later that developing education for the next generation is extremely important”

The country is investing into future problems if there is no meaningful investment in education. "A country that does not invest in its human resources is limiting its ability to grow and worst still is investing in future problems."

"We don’t need to look beyond the borders of Solomon Islands to prove the significance of this policy issue”

The role of education here would be to install an attitude of tolerance, respect and acceptance amongst our people.

Let us look back and see those 36 years on but the country is still depending on export of primary products to sustain our efforts to improve our competiveness.

Developing of human resources is the most sustainable of all the factors of production scored very low in its use and worst still we are not producing enough human resources with relevant skills to cope with the demands of investors in a drastically changing world that is driven by science and technology.

Solomon Islands 36 years of existence as a nation only 4.4 percent of the proportion aged 12 and older have tertiary education and only 1 percent has vocational and professional qualification. Of the same group only 56.8% have primary education and 18.9 percent have secondary education.

"This is a statistics that we should be proud of. It shows that we are not taking sustainable investment in our future seriously."

Solomon Islands must in the next ten to fifteen years have a pool of human resources that can meet the challenging needs of investments and development in the 21st Century.

I believe our aim is to graduate this country from suppliers of raw materials to producers of goods and services and exporters of trained human resources.

"Talking about coping with the demands of development in the 21st Century and beyond, Solomon Islands has and will continue to face a huge challenge in training our human resources to a point where we can be proud of as a meaningful factor of production compared with other small countries."