Farmers and constituents of West Guadalcanal Constituency (WGC) are set to benefit from a 1.2 million transport initiative funded by the government through the constituency office under the leadership of Hon. Anthony Veke.
This was after WGC Member of Parliament Hon. Veke handed over four 3 and half ton trucks (FAW brand) to four registered entities in Savulei ward in his constituency.
The four entities are; T Cube Transportation Enterprises, Tapzma Enterprises, Alota Transport Enterprises, and Anesia Enterprises.
The handover dubbed historic and the first of its kind to have happened in the constituency not because of the immense delivery but because it’s an achievement for the constituency.
The vehicles were purchased with CDF allocation for 2023 with the aim to empower recipients to participate in economic activities and become self-reliant as aligned to the constituency development priorities under its transportation/income generation program.
“This is a historic handing over unlike in the past for WGC people, because we have goals to achieve and make a difference in our constituency,” Hon. Veke said in a small but significant handover ceremony Friday last week.
Hon. Veke said, to make a difference in WGC, we have to embrace our goals as obvious by recipients of these vehicles. “They embrace their goals and move on with the changes WGC wants to see in the lives of our rural people.
“As your elected leader, I will continue to support and empower you through such important initiative to improve livelihood and development in our constituency.”
He encouraged the recipients that if they want to see the result of what they received they must willing to sacrifice and carry that change with them now and into the future.
“WGC development pathway is to empower and encourage constituents to become self-reliant and stand alone as you build your own world and livelihood."
“We need to stop relying on MPs for our daily survival and what WGC under my leadership is doing is to empower you with these vehicles so that you can look after it and use it for the good of our families and communities in Savulei ward,” Hon. Veke added.
A binding agreement/contract was also signed between the recipients (entities) and the WGC office.
Constituency Development Officer (CDO) Chris Laubua explained that the signed agreement will hold recipients accountable for the vehicles and for any misuse.
“These are not private vehicles, these are Constituency property so use them to achieve our development goals in a proper manner,” he said while making reference to the signed agreement.
Under the binding agreement each recipient must follow the guidelines stipulated in the contract.
“Generally, these recipients are legal money generating enterprises to serve the needs of their communities and other small enterprises within their organisational structure,” CDO Laubua stressed.
One of the female recipient Margaret Vera who represented women and children in Verahue said this is a positive start for them.
“Our women can now transport their fresh produce from their garden or farms to Honiara unlike in the past we rely heavily on private transportation which sometimes we cannot afford it,” she said.
“As a woman representing our women folks in Verahue, I will make sure that they will make a good use of this new initiative.
“Mind you this is not a free service, but we will try and make it affordable especially for our women to move their farm produces to the Central Market in Honiara,” she added.
She further expressed that access to affordable transportation means our women can also access basic social and economic goods, services and facilities to which rural communities need to have access to and be able to live a socially and economically productive and decent live.
“On behalf of our women, I want to thank our MP and his Constituency Officers, and the government through Ministry of Rural Development for this development initiative.
“We will continue to support this kind of initiative to improve the livelihood of our women, children and the constituency as a whole,” she added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary Technical of the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) Hugo Hebala applauded WGC under the leadership of their MP for their continuous support towards development in the constituency.
“Investing in such live transforming initiative is profound,” he said.
Mr Hebala then encouraged recipients to look after the assets because it cost government a lot of resources and use them for their intended purpose to serve constituents and communities in the constituency.
He said the ministry is pleased to see constituencies investing CDF in such worthy cause to improve social and economic livelihood of our rural people.
Mr Hebala said that MRD as the ministry responsible for CDF program will continue to support our 50 respective constituencies to ensure they deliver their development programs towards improving social and economic livelihood in our rural areas.
The vehicles were procured from Lee Kwok Kuen Company with CDF funds.
CDF is a programme of the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) and is implemented by the 50 constituencies in the country through the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) purposely to improve the social and economic livelihoods of all Solomon Islanders.
Source: Press Release, Ministry of Rural Development