PM Sogavare hopes to advance wide range of cooperation

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare cited the latest progress in his country's collaboration with China to illustrate how the Global Development Initiative serves as a vehicle to drive pathbreaking action on development issues.

Noting that strengthening the national health system will help boost his country's resilience against a pandemic in the future, Sogavare thanked China for building a comprehensive public medical health center in the Solomon Islands. He said he is also pleased that the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy's hospital ship, the Peace Ark, will visit the Solomon Islands this year.

Sogavare was addressing on Monday the first high-level conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development in Beijing.

The Pacific Island country signed a memorandum of understanding on the Global Development Initiative, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping, with China in March to carry out cooperation in advancing healthcare, infrastructure, social governance, culture and sports, human resource and think-tank exchanges.

Poor infrastructure is one of the hurdles that restrict the development of tourism in the Solomon Islands, an archipelago state comprising volcanic islands and coral atolls, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and covering an area of 28,400 square kilometers.

A total of 161 telecommunication towers will be installed in the Solomon Islands under a bilateral connectivity and structural transformation investment, which Sogavare said will unify and connect people scattered in different geographical areas of the country for the first time.

Calling China the largest infrastructure partner of the Solomon Islands, he expressed his gratitude for Beijing's assistance to the country, especially the China-aided Pacific Games Stadium, as the island nation will host the Pacific Games in November.

Sogavare urged countries to take more ambitious actions to mitigate climate change, with a special focus on renewable energy and the transfer of green technology, adding that there is enough political will among countries to deepen South-South cooperation.

"Building common prosperity is investing in peaceful coexistence, and this is the future we must strive for," he said.

He called for "rising above those who want to create a divided world with ideology and geopolitical front lines", and remaining united. He also urged exploring a cooperation path to close the gap between the haves and the have-nots.