President Hilda Heine told the nation Monday that despite 2025 being a year of accomplishment, three years after the signing of the Compact of Free Association “implementation of Compact III has not yet been fully realized.”
In her state of the nation speech at Monday’s Nitijela opening, the President also said bluntly that accountability was essential and that RMI government entities that don’t complete audit requirements “will not receive RMI government funding.” She emphasized that completion of timely audits was essential for and the Ministry of Finance was bringing in extra accountants to accelerate audit work that in a number of RMI agencies is behind by one or more years.
On the Compact, she noted: “There are provisions of the Compact where our government and United States do not see eye to eye, particularly in how some of the programs under the agreement should be carried out. We have formally requested a government-to-government meeting with our friends from the United States so that we may discuss these matters directly and reach a mutual agreement on a way forward.”
She then turned to the major accomplishments of 2025:
- New tax regime that will modernize tax collection is to be implemented in October.
- The RMI government with a private company “has developed an additional mechanism to increase government revenue through the sale and use of digital tokens known as USDM1. Through this new investment scheme, the RMI will be able to earn interest on US Treasury bonds, which are used to back the USDM1 digital token. The digital token will also allow our people to use it as a form of currency on our atolls and islands where traditional banking service is not available.”
- Major infrastructure improvements, including stabilizing power on Majuro and Ebeye, two new airplanes for Air Marshall Islands expected to arrive in the next few months, a temporary airport terminal while a new permanent terminal is constructed later this year, the addition of a new reservoir with 11.5 million gallons of capacity for Majuro, an outer islands water project that is completing several years work to ensure all outer islands have water storage and catchment systems, upgrading off sewer lines for Majuro, upgrading telecom services in Majuro and soon starting on Ebeye, and the reconstruction of the Nitijela building on schedule for completion by August.
She highlighted dock development, community centers, and other essential facilities being developed on outer islands and added that “the Cabinet is now working to secure necessary funding to provide solar home systems to all outer islands.”
All of these projects emphasize her government’s core philosophy which is “people first.”
This is why the government has focused on the Early Childhood Development program to improve health and growth of young children, the Enra program to provide citizens with a quarterly payment, the non-contributory social security program for people 60 and above and those with disabilities who will receive $100 per month, and the Extraordinary Needs Distribution program that will inject $20 million this year for 11 atolls and single islands.
“What is critical, however, is that we do not allow these public support programs to become blinders to our personal responsibility towards our families and our nation,” President Heine said. “We must look to our past, to the wisdom and resiliency of our ancestors to help us help ourselves. In my address at the Opening of the Nitijela in 2024, I said that our ancestors were resourceful, ingenious, and diligent. That same spirit must guide us now to be resourceful, to be brave, and to remain steadfast in all that we undertake.”