Old Issues, New Solutions

By ROWAN CALLICK

As Papua New Guinea enter its 35th year as an independent country, its options—the risks and the opportunities—are looking surprisingly familiar.

It has, of course, as its leader, the most durable, cleverest politician whom the Pacific region has ever produced, in Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare. He has been prime minister for 16 of PNG’s 35 years.

Still, the succession remains uncertain—both the cause of instability within his own ranks and the wider political terrain and a tool through which he subtly maintains power.

Just as so often in PNG’s past, the country is entering an upbeat period on the crucial economic front, with growth expected to reach eight percent this year, well ahead of the rest of the islands region—except Vanuatu—on the back of the launch of the costly construction of ExxonMobil’s A$16.5 billion liquefied natural gas project.

PNG LNG - the topic of dicussion for the Grade 12 written expression exam

My 18-year-old nephew Shannon is sitting for an exam at Gordons High school today. He is one of thousands of Grade 12 students sitting for the written expression exam nationwide. The examination involves writing a 350-500 word essay on the PNG LNG project.

Last Thursday evening I sat with him and went through some of the publicity material that PNG LNG project had put out as well as the "work book" given to students to prepare them for the exam. There were about 10 articles in the work book for students to use as references for discussing 4 main topics. One of the articles was mine from this blogsite "PNG LNG milestone - holistic growth? (Friday March 9 2010)

PNG LNG Miilestone - Holistic Growth??

Yet another historic milestone in PNG’s development was reached early this week with the Financial Close announcement by ExxonMobil, Esso Highlands & the PNG Government. The PNG LNG Project is the largest project by far that ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil and gas company, has undertaken as project operator. It also involves the largest ever project loan raised worldwide for any oil or gas project. This is an event that certainly puts PNG on the world map.

Those of you who have followed this project will appreciate that with financial close we now have certainty that the co-venturers in this project will be spending the equivalent of the PNG annual budget every year between now and project start up in 2014. This translates to an average daily expenditure of US$10 million. Local expenditures will rise to a peak of US$35 million a day at the height of project construction.

ExxonMobil anticipates that about 5,000 Papua New Guineaneans will be employed during the construction phase. Recruitment of these individuals has already commenced. In addition new training facilities are being completed at the Port Moresby Technical College along with a new facility at June, near the Hides gas-field in Southern Highlands. Both these institutions will train about 1,000 people annually to Australian standards.

Holistic Growth

But has anyone done a study on holistic growth for the people and infrastructure of this country??

The lessons learnt from other countries such as Nauru, where one upon a time it had the highest per capita income in the world and now is no longer a force in the South Pacific, are important. Also consider the case with our own Bougainville.

International Women's Day

As we celebrate International Women's Day, below are some stats:-

• In PNG only 50% of girls are enrolled in school compared to 60% of boys

•   However in PNG, 65% of women & 63% of men are literate (2000-2007)

•   Female representation in the Parliament - 0.9% (1 out of 109); one of the lowest in the Pacific region.

•  The Maternal Mortality rate in PNG is 773 per 100,000 births. This is the second worst in the Asia/Pacific region. Afghanistan is the worst.

• Only 53% of women in PNG receive delivery assistance from health professionals.

•  In 2007, 21,000 women out of 54,000 Papua New Guineans were living with HIV AIDS (UNAIDS Report on Global AIDS epidemic, 2008)

TAKE A STEP. MAKE A CHANGE.

Ist Cholera Case in Port Moresby General Hospital

The PNG Health Department has just confirmed the first cholera case at Port Moresby General Hospital.

While the hospital is working with the National Capital District Commission's Health Adviser, to use one of the health facilities in the city, to isolate any further incidents, people should be extra cautious.

Please take time to have a read:

Nambawan Super contributes to Housing industry review

 

  

In light of housing industry review conducted by the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) to gather views and find solutions to the current housing crisis in the country, Nambawan Super has come forward with its comments to the Commission calling on relevant authorities to consider among others, the establishment of a National Housing Policy.

Nambawan Super is one of the biggest owner and developer of properties in the National Capital District (Port Moresby).

Managing Director, Leon Buskens said there was an obvious lack of an overarching ‘National Housing Policy’ to holistically address the housing needs of the country and this has resulted in state of condition that we are in today.

Mr Buskens said while some employers and institutions like Nambawan Super are working on being part of the housing solution through relatively small housing roll out programs, more can be achieved through a collaborative and sustained platform such as the National Housing Policy framework.

Priest - Poverty is High in PNG

        By Maureen Gerawa - Post Courier

The number of vulnerable people, including widows and orphans in this country is increasing with no sign of Government support, says a Catholic priest Fr Jude Ronayne-Forde.

While responding to comments at the launch of this year's State of the World's Children Report yesterday, he told a small gathering, that while there were many good things about the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and how this was being implemented through the various departments, his experience showed otherwise.

In the past 10 years, Fr Jude's work has extended to those living with HIV, including women & children and found that the number of widows, single mothers and orphans, especially in Port Moresby is increasing with no Government support in place for these people.

PNG GAMES OPENS

 The Papua New Games opens this weekend with Teams from almost all 20 provinces in the country.

The Prime Minsiter announced K1.5 million yesterday for the Games to be staged in Port Moresby. But sadly there are provinces still scrounging around for money to send their teams into the nation's capital. One such province is Oro. It was promised money by the Governor and the Ijivitari MP. The money from the Ijivitari MP was reported in the papers as having been contributed.

In a last minute bid to support Team Oro, fundraising activities by Port Moresby residents went into full swing including a Concert by Oro Gospel Group "Voice In The Wind" last Sunday at the Drill Hall, University of PNG.

Whatever amount being raised, not just by Team Oro supporters, but other province supporters, has all good intentions and I know will be channeled appropriately to make each one of us proud to be from our individual provinces.

GOOD LUCK & MAY THE BEST TEAM WIN!!

'PNG STILL POOR'

From the Mining Seminar as reported by the Post-Courier

Despite hosting some of the largest mining companies in the country, Papua New Guineans are still "virtually poor", says Madang Governor and former Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet.

He challenged the National Government and the bureaucracy to come up with proper benefit sharing mechanisms and policies so that Papua New Guineans saw tangible benefits from the mines they hosted.

He said PNG still ranked poorly in development indexes world-wide and "where does all these wealth go to?" he asked.

LANDOWNERS STILL MISUSE BENEFITS

By Eric Tapakau (Post-Courier newspaper)


Many landowners continue to spend a majority of their benefits from the extraction of their minerals on immediate consumption rather than investment.

Mineral Resource Authority Managing Director Kepas Wali said this when speaking at the 2009 mining Seminar yesterday. His paper was titled "Mining Benefits and Responsible Equitable Distribution."

POVERTY IS A GROWING ISSUE IN PNG

By Maureen Gerawa

Poverty is a growing issue in Papua New Guinea and the Government and its partners have been urged to do all they can to tackle it.

This was also a commitment made by 189 countries, including PNG to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). A small group gathered on Friday in Port Moresby, mostly staff of the United Nations agencies and representatives from Government agencies like the Ombudsman Commission took time out to participate in the "STAND UP AND TAKE ACTION" - a global campaign in support for the fight against poverty and the achievement of the MDG.

The groups are calling on world leaders to deliver on their MDG commitments as the deadline to deliver is 2015.

There are eight (8) MDG goals:

1) Eradicate poverty

2) Achieve universal primary education

3) Promote gender equality

4) Reduce child mortality 

5) Improve maternal health

6) Combat HIV / AIDS

7) Ensure environmental sustainability

8) Create a global partnership for development