The Rennell and Bellona Provincial Government is planning to hold a consultation conference in Honiara next month to discuss issues of importance to the Province.
A statement from the Province says that the Premier Timothy Johnstone is working on a proposal to convene a conference to which a number of working Rennell and Bellona people in Honiara would be invited to take part.The statement says that the province is planning to review the province's five year development plan which expires at the end of this year.
The province is expected to set up a small taskforce at the end of the conference to use feed back during the planned conference to formulate a new five year plan for the province.
The proposed Rennell and Bellona consultation conference is expected to also invite officials from the constitutional review to brief the conference on the current review process, its current status, progress, and the direction it is taking.
The statement says that it is anticipated that after the proposed consultation conference the Province would set up its own working committee to prepare the province in the event that there is a new constitution in Solomon Islands introducing a system of state governments.
"It is very important for a small province with limited resources and economic opportunities to study its own position in view of the plan by Solomon Islands to establish states under a national constitution with more powers and autonomy provided under the constitution rather than by an act of parliament," the statement says.
The proposed conference is also expected to consider current and pressing issues such as proposed logging, mineral prospecting, and fisheries particularly in relation to the Indispensable Reefs.
This would be the second such consultation conference to be held by the Rennell and Provincial Government this year.
Like the last conference in May the proposed consultation conference next month would be chaired by the Rennell and Bellona Premier Timothy Johnstone.
National Express