The coalition group camping at Heritage Park Hotel says the country's economy has "for so long relied heavily on the forestry sector and there is a great need to spread out to other sectors of the economy."
The group organized a media conference on the topic "Our Economy" at the Heritage Park hotel last night. Spokesperson for the Solomon Islands Democratic Party led coalition on economic affairs, MP for Small Malaita and former governor of the Central Bank, Rick Hou said past government since the 1990's have relied heavily on the logging sector, and disregarded other sectors."It is quite sad to see how past government's lack of policy direction on the overall economy, coupled with weak regulatory mechanisms on the country's revenue earnings, has caused disadvantages to the country's overall economic development...we focused too much on logging," Mr Hou said.
Mr Hou said a new government should focus on other important sectors of the economy like fisheries, agriculture and tourism, areas in which if harnessed properly could benefit the country greatly.
Mr Hou is tipped to become the country's next Finance Minister should their coalition group win the election of Prime Minister.