Driving into Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara from the international airport in late May 2023
revealed the frenetic pace of construction. The new Japanese-built passenger departure terminal
and resurfaced roads led to the jewel in the crown — the large new Chinese-built National Stadium
— all constructed ahead of the 17 November – 2 December 2023 Pacific Games.
The quadrennial Pacific Games was first held in 1963 in Fiji and was last hosted by Samoa in 2019. This is the first time Solomon Islands has hosted the games. Athletes from 24 countries and territories in Oceania — including Australia and New Zealand since 2019 — will be competing in 24 sports.
The opening ceremony provided great wide shots of the packed National Stadium as the ‘Olympics of the Pacific’ got underway, led out by 2019 hosts Samoa, while the crowd held up the flags of the different Pacific Island nations participating in the Games. Light towers at the National Stadium allow many events to be staged in the cooler evenings.
For Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, much is riding on the success of the 2023 Games. Sogavare used the Games as his rationale for delaying national elections, due by May 2023, until probably April 2024.
The cost of the Pacific Games is both an economic and a political issue. Estimates of overall costs vary, with a November 2023 estimate placing the total cost at US$250 million and another from June 2023 at around US$355.5 million. If the latter estimate is accurate, the cost of the Games may be equivalent to around 46 per cent of the country’s annual budget and 22 per cent of its 2022 GDP.
There is no doubt that the Games are a major expense, surpassing even the initial US$210 million cost of the Tina River hydropower project. Solomon Islands Minister of Finance and Treasury Harry Kuma declared in his 24 November 2022 budget speech that ‘this is the single largest unifying undertaking by any government since independence in 1978. It is also the single largest driver of the country’s economic recovery’.
The 2023 budget anticipates a deficit of 1.5 billion Solomon Islands dollars (US$178 million). In theory, the Solomon Islands government has a responsible borrowing policy, with a 2020 statement noting that ‘as a responsible government, we cannot accept loan funding that is not affordable and are careful to only accept loans that will generate returns which the government has the capacity to repay’.
This raises the question of how the Games are being funded. In September 2023, Solomon Islands repurchased over 1.733 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights, borrowed under the Flexible Credit Scheme to assist with balance of payments problems in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has not sought further funding from the IMF for the Games.
Solomon Islands has also not borrowed from the World Bank for the Games. Like the Solomon Islands government, the World Bank sees the Games as part of a potential wider economic recovery. The World Bank suggests that the Games and other projects will contribute to a bounce in GDP from -4.1 per cent growth in 2022 to 2.9 per cent in 2023. The Games are expected to have flow-on effects that will boost services and tourism.
The government is paying for a fifth of the costs of the Games, with donors picking up the rest. The government’s shifting of diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China and its 2022 security pact with China have enabled Sogavare to leverage aid donors to build new facilities and provide extra security. It has also brough the United States back to the Solomon Islands after a 30 year absence, with the US embassy reopening in February 2023.
Most of the new facilities have been built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, which received the contract from the Chinese government in March 2021 and commenced work in May of that year. The Chinese-built facilities were ‘a gift’ that was handed over to Solomon Islands in September 2023. These facilities include the 10,000-seat National Stadium with its two large stands and its synthetic rubber running track encircling a full-size rugby/football field. Nearby is an aquatic centre, five tennis courts, a friendship hall for the 5000 athletes and three multipurpose sports complexes.
The sporting facilities are in addition to significant Chinese aid to support health infrastructure development and some 30 fully-funded educational scholarships for study in China for undergraduate, Masters and PhD programs.
Indonesia funded a futsal facility, while Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India also contributed to the infrastructure built for the Games. Japan funded the removal of unexploded World War II ordnances on the land on which many of the facilities were built. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea are providing armed forces, medical and policing support to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force as part of the Solomon Islands Assistance Force and will stay until the election.
A successful Pacific Games will provide Sogavare with enormous political and development capital. It will validate his China switch and give him the platform from which to form another government in 2024. What remains to be seen is what, if anything, China may want in the future for its ‘gift’. And that is a matter that has piqued and will continue to sustain interest from Australia and the United States.
Dr Charles Hawksley is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong.
This article is part of an EAF special feature series on 2023 in review and the year ahead.