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The much talked about decentralisation of developments must be revisited. It is very clear that the subsistence economy of Solomon Islands could be regarded as the means of sustaining the biggest population density of the country without much difficulty. Just think of this, people move back into villages without government supply of food, much less with financial assistance as many were either laid-off or on half payment of wages and salaries. Therefore it is time that the decentralisation of developments be at the forefront for planning into the future.

Well made insight comments Dr. T. The British have established good landmarks fo Solomon Islands by establishing Auki, Gizo, Lata, Buala as centers for village development. At our 10th anniverary that mindset was still there but thereafter we have gone our own ways only ti create for ourselves this problem. Last week Monday I went to KiraKira only to find with much surprise the once British rural headquarter is now filled with overgrown bushes. We have shifted our devolution policies to centralization and have our qualified human resources stacked together in Honiara leaving the provinces struggling on their own to look after their people. We are yet to see and have a Prime Minister who was born from a village in Solomon Islands to better understand our people, villages and provincial needs.

Hullo Sonya Congratulation and it's very Inspiring. God Bless

According to the latest report of Business Insider in which they based their data in World Health Organization (WHO), updated as of today that the virus has killed more than 95,000 people and infected globally over 1,500,000.* This pandemic is getting worse and people in the government seemingly not doing enough for the welfare of its people. The fact is, we’re already in the middle of one of the most severe health crises since the Spanish Flu and healthcare systems in most countries simply can’t handle the load anymore due to overwhelming number of cases infected and hospitals are understaffed and even lack of medical supplies. If a worst case is really have to happen. Experts are advising that people must learn to be more “medically self reliant“ and prepare something more... https://cheaplink20com.wordpress.com/2020/03/13/covid-19-prepper-how-to-prepare/

I am pretty much concerned which was the scenerio, all played out in the regional processing centre here in manus. The partnership or a form of bileteral motion between the hosting Provincial Government and the development package was never present. Local and private companies took the outside context to bid or be sub contracted. Sadly manus government was left in blank with damaging effect to clean-up and pursue second handed outcome that was left behind after closure.

First of all I would like to pay my respects and condolences to those that lost their lives and the families and friends who survive them. However, I feel I should point out that MV Taemarehu sailed against the advice of government. A cyclone warning had been issued and all ships advised not to sail. Covid-19 is not something that will go away in a few weeks. We are blessed that it has not yet reached our shores (as far as we know). We only need to look at what is happening in the USA right now to see how bad can be. Then, look at NZ and we see how it can be effectively managed. There only way to escape relatively unscathed is for everyone to be smart, and do the right thing. Those days should not be in vain, and hopefully no more deaths occur from covid-19 in SI

Firstly, the Government of Papua New Guinea's response to the first case of COVID-19 case was slow and lacked supporting policies, legislations, and municipal laws or regulations. However, these were slowly but surely enough addressed in light of WHO declaring COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Secondly, current Health Infrastructure, Health facilities and medical equipment as well as drugs are poorly maintained to international standards. Thirdly, addressing the many health problems within our Health system requires updated statistical figures and daily reporting in harmonization to the PNG National Health Plan 2018 - 2022. There are eight pieces of legislation in the health sector that need to be harmonized to the Medium Term Development Plan 3 and the PNG Provincial Health Authorities or PHA. There must be clear reporting processes, procedures and protocols in place. Similarly, there must be clear demarcations in roles and responsibilities between the PHA, Provincial Governments, District Development Authorities or DDA and the Provincial Health Board. In sum, the Governments response to the COVID-19 Epedemic is satisfactory and there is room for improvement.

In a recent development, we have two cases in the NT particularly relevant to the conversation around Labour Market Testing. Specifically referring to the desire to offer Australians work first, which in the following cases, demonstrates the glaring necessity of being able to redeploy Seasonal Workers quickly during this pandemic. A melon grower in the NT was due to see his five Timorese Seasonal Workers arrive late March. They didn't travel. He advised us he would give some locals an opportunity. He asked 11 local people to go to his farm to meet and discuss the job. One of them turned up, then declined the opportunity. In another case where four local NT hospitality workers who were laid off as their resort was shut down were offered harvest work. They were due to start on 30th March at a citrus and mango operation. Only one person turned up, another contracted tonsillitis on the weekend, and his girlfriend stayed home to look after him . The forth candidate had his birthday that day so he took the day off.. without calling the employer or our staff. The one person who did start, emailed our staff on the first day to say that he could not go back anymore, because he would have to have a shower everyday as soon as he got home, and would have to wash his work clothes daily. I'm looking forward to finding out how many Australians will forego the $550 per week Job Seeker payments to actually travel out to the regions and pick fruit.

I want to share with you my own experience. I'm from US and as you might know, today US is the country with the most cases of COVID-19 virus in the world. You guys really do you work pretty well, holding only 20+ place in the world of coronavirus' pandemic cases. I hope you won't face this disease in such a big scale. From this survey - https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-june-2019/, 28% of Americans don't have emergency savings and only one in four have a rainy day fund, but not enough money to cover three months’ worth of living expenses. Week ago 3 mln of Americans lost their jobs! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/26/upshot/coronavirus-millions-unemployment-claims.html. And it's not even the peak of the disease that's expected in mid-April. If COVID-19 cases will continue to grow for the next few weeks, then all these people without savings mentioned below will struggle really a lot. In our case, we're trying to save our workers' jobs. We're lucky because of our field of activity (mold remediation services). So on our customer's request, we released a COVID-19 disinfection service to help our neighbors to fight against this virus. (https://www.fdpmoldremediation.com/sanitizing-and-disinfecting.aspx). What I want to say is just to keep you guys from our US experience. For the moment, here in Australia, you're in a much better situation then we are, so take advantage of this. Act faster, act stricter, act ahead and you'll avoid the major crisis.

Speaking from his vast experience in the Public Service

Thanks Dan for your article and more generally to all the others providing updates around the region. In terms of the Solomon Islands, I think there is more that can be said about the country at this time. 1. On 1 April 2020, the Government announced a reduction in budgeted expenditures of $209.2 million. This was done by a combination of a 50% reduction in non-essential and discretionary expenditures (ends up with a 11% across the board cut in the budget), a freeze in recruitment and a 15% reduction in the Development budget. 2. Economic growth has been revised to 1.8% in 2020 (but I think this will again be revised in coming months). The Solomon Islands main economic partners are expected to report weaker growth (ADB in early April has revised China’s GDP growth to 2.3% in 2020) and continue facing increases in unemployment and the effects of weakened supply-chain connections due to disruptions in global transport and storage connectivity. This will affect the availability of many capital, intermediate and consumption items in the Solomon Islands. 3. The shutdown in all air passenger traffic and refusal to allow cruise ships to dock has meant that all tourism revenues have fallen to zero. Accommodation in Honiara is now at around 18-20% occupancy and is expected to fall further by May. Overall, weaker exports markets, lower global prices for commodities and falls in tourism will see a decrease in export and import duties and foreign earnings. The Solomon Islands currently has enough foreign reserves to cover over 11 months of imports, which is at a healthy level. But a prolonged period of weakness will see that fall further. There is a also a lack of information on what is happening outside of Honiara and how the economic and social effects of the current economic situation will affect people in the provinces. Kind regards and stay safe, Scott Hook

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