The advisor with the Solomon Islands Development Trust, Dr John Roughan, says before the country's economy can be turned around, Solomon Islanders need to confront and overcome some fundamental problems.
The Regional Assistance Mission or RAMSI is now starting to focus on rebuilding the economy after concentrating on security in its first few weeks in the country.
But Dr Roughan says expectations wealth can be gained without effort, the attitude of politicians towards public money and the way land is regarded, all need to change if a sound economy is to be established.
Dr Roughan says the RAMSI team can only be interested bystanders in this process.
"We thank them for what they have done, but they can't do that work for us, it's ourselves who have to do it and one of the first things I would say is to understand that if we destroyed ourselves then the first thing we have to say is mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpea....then we go on from there."
