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Showing posts from October, 2010

ADB, Australia to Help Papua New Guinea Expand Microfinance to Rural Poor

The FINANCIAL The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Government will support a $24 million project to help rural communities in Papua New Guinea access credit and financial services. The Microfinance Expansion Project is expected to generate jobs and boost growth in some of the country's poorest and most isolated regions. Lack of access to finance is a major constraint to rural development in Papua New Guinea. ADB estimates that only 15% of the population has access to formal or informal banking facilities, and many parts of the country still use a non-monetary barter system for transactions. "This project will help rural areas move from a subsistence to a modern cash-based economy and in the process it will increase incomes and reduce poverty by stimulating informal business activity," said Robert Wihtol, Director General of ADB's Pacific Department. According to ADB, the project will extend and build on the experiences and lessons learned from ADB'

ADB, Australia to Help Papua New Guinea Expand Microfinance to Rural Poor

The FINANCIAL The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Government will support a $24 million project to help rural communities in Papua New Guinea access credit and financial services. The Microfinance Expansion Project is expected to generate jobs and boost growth in some of the country's poorest and most isolated regions. Lack of access to finance is a major constraint to rural development in Papua New Guinea. ADB estimates that only 15% of the population has access to formal or informal banking facilities, and many parts of the country still use a non-monetary barter system for transactions. "This project will help rural areas move from a subsistence to a modern cash-based economy and in the process it will increase incomes and reduce poverty by stimulating informal business activity," said Robert Wihtol, Director General of ADB's Pacific Department. According to ADB, the project will extend and build on the experiences and lessons learned from AD

ITS OUR GAME

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COUNTRYSIDE Albert Veratau and Garry Juffa represent two clashing ideologies. Veratauism consist of building the code by forging strong relations with a major partner who will provide financial and technical support. It reached the echelons of our relations with Australia when former PM Rudd pulled strings to get the ball rolling on the NRL contemplating a 2015 entrant for one of our teams. Even at the operational level we saw a mass injection of technical assistance. Whole bunch of blokes flooded our shores brining goodies. The Pacific Cup saw a full team of dim dims in everything. From setting up the PA system, touch judges, promotion and marketing consultants and even water boys. Why even the great Adrian Lam looked far and wide in the great southland for Kumuls. Recruiting them from the North all the way to the south and boy they put on a show. Trashing every pacific country that came our way. It was something and Veratauism had prevail in bringing the code much needed atte

Australian money to sit on sideline until PNG power struggle is tackled

CHRIS BARRETT THE release of $4 million of Australian taxpayer funding to Papua New Guinea rugby league is on hold indefinitely while a bitter power struggle for leadership of the game in the country persists. As the Kumuls line up for the second game of their Four Nations campaign, against New Zealand in Rotorua tomorrow, the administration in Port Moresby remains crippled by a dispute between rival factions that has ventured from the boardroom to the courts and back. The uncertainty over the future stewardship of the PNG Rugby Football League has prompted AusAid, which is a partner in the lucrative package to PNG league with the Australian Sports Commission and the ARL, to continue to delay delivery of the funding 14 months after it was allocated and announced by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. There are hopes that the year-long dispute between former chairman Albert Veratau and Gary Juffa, the PNG customs commissioner, will be resolved at the PNGRFL's annual general me

MOROBE MINING IN HOT WATER

PNGBLOGS Bulolo MP Sam Basil went on NBC yesterday to tell the people of Watut River Communities to refrain from signing any statutory declaration of such from Morobe Mining JV and the Morobe Provincial Government until our lawyer’s advices about its future implications as the Mp believes that it may jaepodise future lawsuits from the locals and the District Administration. Bulolo District JDP&BPC recently passed a K150,000.00 funding to fund a Toxicologist from Australia who have already identified locations for sampling. Mr Basil also urges affected people of Huon Gulf to convince their local MP & Minister for Health Hon. Sasa Zibe or the Governor Hon. Luther Wenge to fund the Huon Gulf section side of the affected river system as it is a very expensive exercise which needs a joint effort from all concerned parties. His office has not been informed by the MMJV officials about the past method of compensation exercises including the recent compensation payouts and the future i

MOROBE MINING IN HOT WATER

PNGBLOGS Bulolo MP Sam Basil went on NBC yesterday to tell the people of Watut River Communities to refrain from signing any statutory declaration of such from Morobe Mining JV and the Morobe Provincial Government until our lawyer’s advices about its future implications as the Mp believes that it may jaepodise future lawsuits from the locals and the District Administration. Bulolo District JDP&BPC recently passed a K150,000.00 funding to fund a Toxicologist from Australia who have already identified locations for sampling. Mr Basil also urges affected people of Huon Gulf to convince their local MP & Minister for Health Hon. Sasa Zibe or the Governor Hon. Luther Wenge to fund the Huon Gulf section side of the affected river system as it is a very expensive exercise which needs a joint effort from all concerned parties. His office has not been informed by the MMJV officials about the past method of compensation exercises including the recent compensation payouts and the futu

Resource Curse’s Next Victim: Papua New Guinea?

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VICTOR MENALDO Papua New Guinea is a small island nation in the South Pacific (Oceania), a region of the world that contains 29 countries and dependent states covering approximately 9,000,000 sq km (3, 475,000 square miles), with a population of about 35.8 million.  It made news today when the NY Times reported today that Papua New Guinea could be the next victim of the so-called resource curse . In 2014, ExxonMobil is scheduled to start shipping natural gas through a 450-mile pipeline, then on to Japan, China and other markets in East Asia. But the flood of revenue, which is expected to bring Papua New Guinea $30 billion over three decades and to more than double its gross domestic product, will force a country already beset by state corruption and bedeviled by a complex land tenure system to grapple with the kind of windfall that has paradoxically entrenched other poor, resource-rich nations in deeper poverty. Let’s examine the claims made by the NY Times. First, the Times

Resource Curse’s Next Victim: Papua New Guinea?

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VICTOR MENALDO Papua New Guinea is a small island nation in the South Pacific (Oceania), a region of the world that contains 29 countries and dependent states covering approximately 9,000,000 sq km (3, 475,000 square miles), with a population of about 35.8 million.  It made news today when the NY Times reported today that Papua New Guinea could be the next victim of the so-called resource curse . In 2014, ExxonMobil is scheduled to start shipping natural gas through a 450-mile pipeline, then on to Japan, China and other markets in East Asia. But the flood of revenue, which is expected to bring Papua New Guinea $30 billion over three decades and to more than double its gross domestic product, will force a country already beset by state corruption and bedeviled by a complex land tenure system to grapple with the kind of windfall that has paradoxically entrenched other poor, resource-rich nations in deeper poverty. Let’s examine the claims made by the NY Times. First, the T

When ExxonMobil Begins Drilling for Gas in Papua New Guinea, Will the Country Fall Victim to the Dreaded Resource Curse?

JUSTIN ROHRLICH Reports have emerged that ExxonMobil ( XOM ) will begin drilling for natural gas in Papua New Guinea. The company’s operations are expected to bring $30 billion -- more than double its current GDP -- over 30 years, but many are wondering if Papua New Guinea, named one of the world’s most corrupt countries by Transparency International, will be able to avoid the so-called “Resource Curse.” The Resource Curse is the paradox that occurs when a country finds itself sitting atop vast riches in the form of minerals, precious metals, and so forth, but finds itself pushed deeper into poverty and societal disrepair. According to the Christian Science Monitor , Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, one time Venezuelan oil minister, likened oil to “the devil’s excrement”. Sheikh Ahmed Yamani, his Saudi Arabian counterpart, reportedly once said, “I wish we had found water.” Case in point: According to The New York Times , the chief of Kili, a local Papua New Guinea town, received $

When ExxonMobil Begins Drilling for Gas in Papua New Guinea, Will the Country Fall Victim to the Dreaded Resource Curse?

JUSTIN ROHRLICH Reports have emerged that ExxonMobil ( XOM ) will begin drilling for natural gas in Papua New Guinea. The company’s operations are expected to bring $30 billion -- more than double its current GDP -- over 30 years, but many are wondering if Papua New Guinea, named one of the world’s most corrupt countries by Transparency International, will be able to avoid the so-called “Resource Curse.” The Resource Curse is the paradox that occurs when a country finds itself sitting atop vast riches in the form of minerals, precious metals, and so forth, but finds itself pushed deeper into poverty and societal disrepair. According to the Christian Science Monitor , Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, one time Venezuelan oil minister, likened oil to “the devil’s excrement”. Sheikh Ahmed Yamani, his Saudi Arabian counterpart, reportedly once said, “I wish we had found water.” Case in point: According to The New York Times , the chief of Kili, a local Papua New Guinea town,

PNG Not Prepared for Gas Wealth

NORIMITSU ONISHI New York Times Published: October 25, 2010 TARI, Papua New Guinea — A founding myth in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea is said to have foretold the arrival of ExxonMobil, the American oil giant that is preparing to extract natural gas here and ship it overseas. According to the myth, called Gigira Laitebo, an underground fire is kept alive by inhabitants poking sticks into the earth. Eventually, the fire “will light up the world,” said Peter O’Neill, the national government’s finance minister. “By development of the project and delivering to international markets, it’s one way of fulfilling the myth.” But like all myths, this one is open to wide interpretation, as a group of men and women at a Roman Catholic parish here suggested before Sunday Mass recently. “If foreigners come to our land, you give them food and water, but don’t give them the fire,” said John Hamule, 38, as the others nodded. “If you do, it will destroy this place.” In 2014, ExxonMobil is s

PNG Not Prepared for Gas Wealth

NORIMITSU ONISHI New York Times Published: October 25, 2010 TARI, Papua New Guinea — A founding myth in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea is said to have foretold the arrival of ExxonMobil, the American oil giant that is preparing to extract natural gas here and ship it overseas. According to the myth, called Gigira Laitebo, an underground fire is kept alive by inhabitants poking sticks into the earth. Eventually, the fire “will light up the world,” said Peter O’Neill, the national government’s finance minister. “By development of the project and delivering to international markets, it’s one way of fulfilling the myth.” But like all myths, this one is open to wide interpretation, as a group of men and women at a Roman Catholic parish here suggested before Sunday Mass recently. “If foreigners come to our land, you give them food and water, but don’t give them the fire,” said John Hamule, 38, as the others nodded. “If you do, it will destroy this place.” In 2014, ExxonMo

PNG UNFIT - GREENPEACE

PAPUA NEW Guinea (PNG) “is in no fit state” to receive international funds under a global deal to stop deforestation and mitigate climate change because of continued logging and corruption, according to a new report by Greenpeace Asia-Pacific. The organisation presented the Asia-Pacific state with a “Golden Chainsaw” award for demanding fast-track funding from donor countries under the UN’s Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme, even though it continues to destroy rainforests. Sam Moko, Greenpeace Asia-Pacific’s PNG-born forests campaigner, accused his government of being “hungry for international forest protection funds, but [it] has no plans to stop destroying its rainforests or to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions”. The report, PNG Not Ready for REDD, urges donor countries to put strict preconditions on any funds they give PNG, including a moratorium on all deforestation, the tackling of corruption and illegal logging, as well as the pr

PNG UNFIT - GREENPEACE

PAPUA NEW Guinea (PNG) “is in no fit state” to receive international funds under a global deal to stop deforestation and mitigate climate change because of continued logging and corruption, according to a new report by Greenpeace Asia-Pacific. The organisation presented the Asia-Pacific state with a “Golden Chainsaw” award for demanding fast-track funding from donor countries under the UN’s Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme, even though it continues to destroy rainforests. Sam Moko, Greenpeace Asia-Pacific’s PNG-born forests campaigner, accused his government of being “hungry for international forest protection funds, but [it] has no plans to stop destroying its rainforests or to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions”. The report, PNG Not Ready for REDD, urges donor countries to put strict preconditions on any funds they give PNG, including a moratorium on all deforestation, the tackling of corruption and illegal logging, as well as the

Greenpeace hands PNG 'Golden Chainsaw

 ILYA GRIDNEFF Greenpeace has presented the Papua New Guinea government with a "Golden Chainsaw" for being greedy rather than green when it comes to tackling climate change. Greenpeace gave the award to PNG representative Federica Bietta during climate change talks in Nagoya, Japan, on Monday. Greenpeace said it chose PNG for the dubious honour for its continued corruption in the forestry sector, stalling UN talks on reducing climate change, disregard for indigenous people's rights and rampant deforestation. <iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.smh.news/news/breakingnewsworld;cat=breakingnewsworld;ctype=article;cat1=world;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=2.5029315E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" fr

Greenpeace hands PNG 'Golden Chainsaw

 ILYA GRIDNEFF Greenpeace has presented the Papua New Guinea government with a "Golden Chainsaw" for being greedy rather than green when it comes to tackling climate change. Greenpeace gave the award to PNG representative Federica Bietta during climate change talks in Nagoya, Japan, on Monday. Greenpeace said it chose PNG for the dubious honour for its continued corruption in the forestry sector, stalling UN talks on reducing climate change, disregard for indigenous people's rights and rampant deforestation. <iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.smh.news/news/breakingnewsworld;cat=breakingnewsworld;ctype=article;cat1=world;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=2.5029315E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true"