According to commit4fitness, the Solomon Islands is a small country located in the South Pacific. It has an economy based largely on subsistence agriculture, fishing and forestry. Agriculture is the main source of income for most households in the Solomon Islands, with crops such as coconuts, bananas and sweet potatoes being grown on farms. Fishing is also an important industry and contributes significantly to the country’s GDP. Forestry is another major sector of the economy, with timber being exported to countries around the world. Tourism has also become increasingly important in recent years, with visitors drawn to its stunning beaches and lush rainforests. The unemployment rate in Solomon Islands stands at 7%, due to its limited economic opportunities and lack of skilled workers.
Business
According to countryaah, most households are still self-sustaining, and only 10 percent of the population is employed in the market economy. In the 1960s, the Kopra area was the only export commodity, but since then business has expanded. The most important export product is now timber and seafood. For its own consumption, root vegetables, rice and vegetables are grown, while palm oil, copra and cocoa are produced for the export market. Fishing licenses to other countries, for example to Taiwan and Japan, for example, also generate income.
- According to abbreviationfinder, SB is the 2 letter abbreviation for the country of Solomon Islands.
During the early 1990s, timber exports increased, but falling world market prices during the last 1990s led to an economic downturn. The Civil War 1999-2000 further exacerbated the suturing. During the 1990s, the country’s business community has gradually recovered, but natural disasters in the form of earthquakes and tsunami (2007 and 2010) have caused major material damage. A quarter of the country’s budget is covered by development assistance, mainly from Australia and Japan.
For information on GDP and other business statistics, see Landsfakta.
SOLOMON. – The northern part of the archipelago, once a German possession and administered by Australia since 1918, forms an integral part of the Papua-New Guinea territory, which gained independence in 1975. The southern S. islands have retained the status of British protectorate until 1973, when they were granted partial self-government. Subsequently, in the framework of the decolonization process underway in the South Pacific, they obtained full autonomy (1976), and finally independence (1978), remaining within the Commonwealth.
The new state (official name: Salomon Islands) includes the main islands of the archipelago: Choiseul, Santa Isabel, New Georgia, Malaita, San Cristobal, Guadalcanal, as well as a large number of coral atolls, scattered over a vast strip of Melanesia extends from NW to SE for over 150 of longitude.
On the island of Guadalcanal, the largest, known for having been the scene of a violent battle between the Japanese and the Americans during the Second World War, is the capital Honiara, which in 1976 had about 15,000 residents. Overall, the territorial surface of the state measures 28,446 km 2 (slightly less than that of Belgium), and a population of 196,700 residents, which is rapidly increasing (annual growth coefficient: 3.5%). In the S. about eighty different dialects are spoken, a fact that reflects the extreme fragmentation of the indigenous communities, of Melanesian lineage.
The economy, which was once based solely on the harvesting and processing of coconuts (still in 1968 the copra contributed to forming 90% of the value of exports), is being restructured, thanks to a process of diversification promoted by the Kingdom United in the 1960s. Copra remains one of the main resources (27% of the value of exports in 1977), but the contribution of fishery products (27%), timber (26%), and palm oil (20%) has increased significantly.). The government tends to intensify fishing activities, and to start exploiting the bauxite and phosphate deposits, with development projects that make use of the contribution of Japanese capital.