The recently elected Malaita Premier, Elijah Asilaua has conveyed his congratulation on behalf of the people of Malaita Province to Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele – promising to promote further collaboration between the Provincial and National Governments.
Asilaua polled 21 votes ahead of his rival Philip Kwato’o who polled 12 votes in the 33-member Provincial Assembly Tuesday this week.
In his inaugural speech on Tuesday, Premier Asilaua conveyed his gratitude to members of the Provincial Assembly for their trust and confidence in him to lead the new Malaita Provincial Executive – extending his best wishes to Prime Minister Manele and the new GNUT Government.
“With great honour and best wishes, I would like to send our sincere congratulations on behalf of the Malaita Provincial Government and our people to our newly elected Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, Cabinet Ministers of the Government for National Unity and Transformation and all elected members of our National Parliament,” Premier Asilaua said.
The previous Malaita Provincial Government under the leadership of former Premier Daniel Suidani created a political standoff with the previous National Government under the leadership of former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
This has resulted in Malaita Province struggling to gain the attention of the national government in terms of development projects and service delivery.
However, Premier Asilaua said the past will not be repeated as he looked forward to work closely with the Manele-led GNUT to ensure his Provincial Government delivers services to his people.
“This will keep us navigating together in the direction with a vision of development inspiration to transform the economy of Malaita for the prosperity of our people and our nation Solomon Islands with values of peace, love, respect, trust, and honesty,” he said.
“I have confidence that our collaboration with the Government for National Unity and Transformation and our development partners through our bilateral cooperation will boost commerce and trade where our people can actively participate to maximize their resources and become self-reliant,” Asilaua added.
Premier Asilaua is expected to finalize his executive line-up this week.
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