This overarching productive sector policy (OPSP) identifies what government, supported by our development partners, can do to facilitate equitable growth and it elaborates the elements of a sustainable growth strategy for the sector. It identifies what the public sector can do to foster the development of institutions that facilitate private investment and enterprise, recognising that it is the private sector that carries the burden of generating growth. This includes the issue of what kinds of investment the government should itself be undertaking, and it also concerns ensuring that public sector activity and policies do not depress or distort the pattern of returns to private investment. The key aim of the policy is to provide clarity and consistency on the government’s role in assisting private sector-led agricultural development in Vanuatu.
In the context of this overarching policy, the term ‘productive sector’ encompasses agricultural (crops, livestock, forest and fisheries) primary production, processing, marketing and trade, together with regulatory services such as quarantine, plus the enabling environment and support services impacting on those areas.