BY LORETTA B MANELE

Harry Kuma, Minister of Finance and Treasury has voiced the need for Solomon Islands to have a big transformation reform in order to attract investment.

He raised this when speaking at the debate on the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Bill this Monday in parliament.

Kuma stressed that the country needs a changing transformative legislative reform to be able to attract sufficient investment level to be able to drive our country forward.

“Solomon Islands must develop a competitive edge and superiority.”

Kuma pointed out that neighbouring countries in the region are ahead of us in terms of ease of doing business.

“Our ranking is issued by World Bank. But we are better in attracting genuine foreign investments from countries around the world.

Having a comparative advantage in an investment area is not good enough for us.

Solomon Islands must develop a competitive edge and superiority.”

Kuma emphasized that Solomon Islands needs to provide genuine investors with a rate-competing treatment.

He said this can include initiatives like; ease of entry into the country, simple tax rating to comply with and taxing diplomatic-like work permits, visa arrangement for investors, technical personnel and CEOs and providing low cost of electricity.

Kuma stated that they have been putting efforts in ensuring macroeconomic stability and fiscal stability, which are so important for us to market this country.

He noted that there are also other factors that are important to attract foreign investment into the country and they are political stability, security and quality and well-maintained infrastructure.

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