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.

PM Congratulates PNG LNG Project on reaching Financial Close

The Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare today congratulated Esso Highlands Limited for successfully concluding financial arrangements that enables the US$15 billion PNG LNG Project to proceed to “full execution”.

The conclusion of sales and purchase agreements with four Asian LNG customers and the completion of financing arrangements represent a major milestone in the government’s ongoing efforts to build a vibrant economy.

Sir Michael said: “My government needs to work in partnership with ExxonMobil and build public sector capacity and better service delivery so that tight project schedules can be met so that we may receive dividends and company taxes sooner in our efforts to meet our development aspirations.

“Government projections suggest that company tax proceeds from this project will average around K5 billion to K7 billion annually during the 30-year life of the project.

“Before we get to the stage when LNG exports will commence much work needs to be done in various parts of the country to successfully build and commission this vast project.”

Kokoda Porters & Guides to be insured

By Nellie Setepano - Post Courier

Porters and guides who assist trekkers along the rugged 96 kilometre Kokoda Track will soon be insured.

The insurance cover of all local porters and guides may tale a while (6-7 months) to formulate but they will be insured after all necessary preparations are done.

This was the assurance given by the Tourism Promotion Authority after a meeting with the Kokoda Track Porters and Guide Association in Port Moresby yesterday.

In its first meeting after an interim executive was formed, the association met with more than 60 local porters to discuss insurance cover among other issues. Tour operators as well as tourists were insured but porters and guides who fell sick or were wounded while assisting trekkers along the famous track usually sought medical help elsewhere or just went home to recover.

The association also discussed that a required weight of 25 kg per porter or guide should be imposed. Some 3000 youths including female carry packs for trekkers that weigh too much.

They were also cheated by operators who did not pay them adequately. Youths would at times carry packs and cover the required  distance but were not paid right after their services. 

A required minimum rate was also suggested so that porters and guides are not underpaid.

The porters and guides now carry ID Cards with photographs.

A Tribute to the Late Bernard Narokobi

By Freda Talao, TC Beirne School of Law,University of Queensland, Australia

"Narokobi, I have been reading your works, I have been enriched by the visions you had of PNG as a philosopher and one of the  founders of this great nation, you dreamed of an egalitarian Papua New Guinea when you so staunchly advocated for the end of colonialism and the birth of this new nation before independence.  This was what you said:

"We wanted to see an egalitarian society with justice, equality, fair play, and opportunity for all.  We believed deeply in human dignity, equal worth and social obligations. We saw enormous opportunity in Papua New Guinea’s villages and saw real darkness in neon lights".   Narokobi in the CPC Report 

You argued that PNG was very much a civilised society, even before the white men came! That our history did not begin when the westerners came...that colonialism was nothing but suppression  that Melanesians now need to break out of..

You challenged the norm in those days..with full knowledge of your critics.. that every race, every nation needs an ideology or philosophy.. to be united as a nation ...... some called you racist.. pushing for the Melanesian way but you had a dream.. and you wrote to make in your own words 'Melanesians feel  six feet tall and walk with freedom and dignity on the land our ancestors gave us.. you wrote to tell Melanesians that we should never again, surrender  our sovereignty to foreign exploiters, that you wrote to unite all Melanesians and all men and women of good will to struggle for justice and freedom everywhere".. 

This was one part of your dream Sir.. The Melanesian Way"...

Sir, some of us have caught your vision... some of us have caught the fire.. we will work hard.. and get there.. and fight for the rights of our people as you did.. Your work will not be in vain.. your work will inspire many more yet to come.. your words as a founding member of this Country will be a beacon that will continue to remind us all of the great vision that you all had for this country..

I salute you , Great Orator, Great Philosopher, Great Statesman, Great Papua New Guinean,  Im so sorry I will not pay my last respect to you in person.. my many friends will on my behalf..Till we meet again, rest in peace

Ombudsman lose power

                                           By Isaac Nicholas - The National

Parliament has taken the first steps to weaken the powers of the Ombudsman Commission and establish a parliamentary Ombudsman committee that will have powers to make inquiries of its own.

Parliament yesterday voted 83-0 to amend section 27(4) of the Constitution to remove the powers of the Ombudsman issuing directives to ministers and heads of departments.

Section 27(4) allows the Ombudsman to issue directives to prevent payments out of public fund, or trips by MPs, or other actions by these office holders if it (the Commission) feels impropriety is involved.

For example, the Commission has, in the past, used this provision to stop MPs taking overseas trips when it felt the trips were a waste of public funds.

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.

Women Rep Bill set for next Parliament session

By Elizabeth Miae - The National

The proposed Bill to have provincial reserve seats for women in parliament will be tabled in the next session of parliament.

The Bill was endorsed by the National Executive Council at its recent meeting in Kimbe, West New Britain province, and has been put on the notice paper for a month as required under the Constitution.

This was announced in a press conference yesterday by Community Development Minister, Dame Carol Kidu and her technical team  of experts  who drafted the bill.

Dame Carol and her team took the opportunity to clarify the public's misunderstanding about the reserved seats for women in parliament.

"This is not the Nominated Seats for women, this is the Reserved Seats for women through elections," Dame carol explained.

"We have done our homework thoroughly and everything that we are doing is constitutional. Women do have equal opportunities in theory but from experience and reality, they (women) don't have equal opportunities to win."

According to a brief report provided by the team on February 17, the NEC considered a joint policy submission from Dame Carol and Inter-government Relations Minister, Job Pomat to seek endorsement of drafting instruction, Bills & Explanatory Notes to amend the Constitution, the Organic Law on National and Local level Elections and the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments to create provincial reserve seats for women.

The NEC approved the submission.

The report stated the model used for Reserved Seats for women was the creation of two-member provincial electorates of which one seat is reserved for a female member who occupies the woman's seat and the other is reserved for the member who occupies the Governor's seat.

The features of the model include:

• The female member represents the province but is not the governor
• Her constituency is the women & men of the province
• She sits in the provincial assembly and Parliament
• She is eligible to be appointed as a minister and a chairperson of a parliamentary committee; and
• She may sit in provincial committees and is eligible to vote for and to be elected deputy governor

Leader for the legal team on Reserved Seats Professor Eric Kiua said women candidates could either stand for the governor's seat, the reserved seat or the open member's seat in the national elections.

He clarified that the reserved seats for women would in no way replace the governor's seat unless the governor is given a ministerial portfolio, then she is eligible to be elected as governor.