BY THE DONOR MISSIONS TO SOMALILAND
Wednesday, 13th October 2010
Ladies and gentlemen,
• On behalf of the government and people of Somaliland, I wish to welcome all of you, distinguished guests, to our country.
• Your presence with us here today is a great honor to us and represents the interest and support the international community is prepared to give to our country and its efforts to establish a stable, peaceful and democratic society, in a region known for its political volatility and the disruptive activities of extremist groups and international piracy. For us this will be challenging but an achievable goal.
• My government is now just over two months old. Apart from security concerns my new administration also inherited a situation of public finances bordering on bankruptcy where civil servants had not been paid for months and huge debts owed to the private sector. Today, we have made substantial progress in this area, by improving the collection of revenues, fighting corruption and the suspension of non-essential expenditures. We are conducting radical changes in the civil service and their working conditions.
• During our campaigns before elections, we promised to fight corruption and appoint an anti-corruption commission to stem out fraud, and to set up a Quality Control Commission to ensure consumer safety. We delivered both.
• We said we would be mobilizing our people in self help campaigns to
ensure every citizen contributes to their community’s wellbeing and national development. We organized the first campaign to clean up and improve the environment of our cities.
• On infrastructure, we promised to complete Hargeisa’s second bridge, the four and half kilometer stretch between Borama and Dila and Hargeisa prison.
Construction is underway in all three projects and on target.
• We have been able to accomplish all that thanks to the commitment, support and hard work demonstrated by our people across the board, from parliament to government Ministers, business community, civil servants and ordinary citizens.
• Our vision is to create a country that is independent, secure, stable, in peace with its neighbors, democratic and prosperous where every citizen can realize his or her potential. Those of you who have been to the Trade Fair must have witnessed a little about the creativity of our people.
• Our country is strategically located to play a key role in the security, stability and democratization of the region and beyond. This is a role we are committed to. We cannot afford to fail either in our vision or in our role. I must say that we still face serious economic, social, political and security challenges, but we believe that there is no challenge that we cannot overcome, provided we receive the encouragement and support we need.
• Justice is another area we promised to address to ensure that the Constitution was upheld and the rights of the citizens were safeguarded. I issued a Presidential Decree disbanding the unconstitutional Security Committee and ordering citizens incarcerated under emergency laws to be released unless their guilt was determined by a court of law.
• Somaliland has very good relations with its neighboring countries like Ethiopia and Djibouti and wishes to continue to maintain that relationship to maintain peace in the region and to expand trade and economic cooperation.
• Finally, this is a country called Somaliland that is peaceful and democratic where The President, the Parliament and Local Councils were elected in fair and free elections, where rule of law reigns and where the streets are full of uniformed children with book in hand going to school, not hooded with guns going to war. We need the support of the international community.
Thank you.
