Corporate entry: Solomon Islands Plantation Ltd.

Details

Solomon Islands Plantation Ltd. (SIPL) was established in 1971 on an initial 1,478 hectares of oil palms on the Guadalcanal Plains (q.v.) between the Ngalimbiu and Metapona Rivers. This became known as CDC I. A plant nursery was started and by 1978 four hundred thousand palms were planted. One of the most successful economic ventures in the Solomons, the company was begun by the British-registered Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), which entered into partnership with the government and indigenous landowners. The latter held only 2 percent of the company, compared to the Corporation's 68 percent and the Solomon Islands National Government's 30 percent. Landowners also received $100 per hectare per annum as rent and $500 per hectare as a premium. The Guadalcanal Provincial government had no financial interest in, and gained no direct benefit from, this major agricultural industry. (Moore 2004b, 73-74)

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Published resources

Books

  • Moore, Clive, Happy Isles in Crisis: The Historical Causes for a Failing State in Solomon Islands, 1998-2004, Asia Pacific Press, Canberra, 2004b, ix, 265 pp. Details