Addressing President Bio on behalf of the diplomatic community in Sierra Leone, Mr. Guy Warrington – the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone said: “We followed your campaign messages before you became president. We also followed your government’s priority areas as stated during the Cabinet Retreat. We welcome those steps as we have seen tremendous progress in just ten and half months of your leadership.
“We have seen fiscal discipline and financial management; most importantly we have seen the fight in combating corruption. We have also seen good governance and the rule of law. We congratulate all of them, we will support those principles laid particularly in economic diplomacy because we have seen a lot of gains in that direction.”
Mr. Guy Warrington went further to say that as head of Diplomatic Missions in Sierra Leone he is very pleased with the manner in which President Bio is governing the country, especially the president’s prioritization of Human Capital Development.
Mr. Warrington affirmed that the diplomatic community welcomes president Bio’s key priority areas, and promised to continue to support the government of Sierra Leone in achieving those priorities.
He said that the diplomatic community will work with the government to ensure that Sierra Leone continues to move in the right direction and looking forward to deepening dialogue with the government.
President Julius Maada Bio thanked resident, non-resident and eminent personalities, on behalf of his government, for their diverse contributions to the development of the country, and informed his guests that he inherited the worst economic situation since independence.
“This worst economic situation is characterized by double-digit inflation, low domestic revenue mobilization, high domestic debt burden, unsustainable external debt and huge arrears to contractors,” he said.
However, he assured the international diplomatic community that his government is pursuing a disciplined economic management policy, by tackling leakages and streamlining revenue mobilization.
He added that his government’s achievements are ensuring that there is prudent public finance management, characterized by aggregate fiscal discipline and resource allocation on strategic priorities.
He assured the international community of Sierra Leone’s readiness to welcome business opportunities, especially foreign investors that are credible and transparent.
