PNGBLOGS

PAUL BARKER INA Papua New Guinea is experiencing a boom associated with LNG development and record prices for most of its mineral and agricultural products. One might expect the country’s population to be thriving from this, with the benefits extending right out to rural communities. However, whilst some individuals and businesses are certainly doing nicely from prevailing conditions, including owners of urban real estate, most of the population (and many businesses) are either left out, or unable to take advantage of current or forthcoming opportunities, or in some cases worse off (by growing costs, shortages and bottlenecks). The benefits are therefore localised in a few main centres, businesses and households, whilst even the formal sector employment growth (e.g. construction) has dropped away since its peak in 2008. The weak link is a failing State with its severely underperforming institutions, which struggle from poor leadership, poor coordination, low morale, corruption and in m

PAUL BARKER INA Papua New Guinea is experiencing a boom associated with LNG development and record prices for most of its mineral and agricultural products. One might expect the country’s population to be thriving from this, with the benefits extending right out to rural communities. However, whilst some individuals and businesses are certainly doing nicely from prevailing conditions, including owners of urban real estate, most of the population (and many businesses) are either left out, or unable to take advantage of current or forthcoming opportunities, or in some cases worse off (by growing costs, shortages and bottlenecks). The benefits are therefore localised in a few main centres, businesses and households, whilst even the formal sector employment growth (e.g. construction) has dropped away since its peak in 2008. The weak link is a failing State with its severely underperforming institutions, which struggle from poor leadership, poor coordination, low morale, corruption and i

Post Courier THE Government has been urged to come clean on the controversial K125m borrowed from National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) to finance community projects in Kokopo, East New Britain. Opposition Deputy leader Bart Philemon said the Government must produce the Cabinet decision that approved the “loan’’ and also called on Nasfund management to explain on what basis and on whose request the K125m loan to the government was approved. “The Government must justify why the whole nation should carry debts for community projects in one district – Kokopo arising from the issuance of this special purpose securities,” said Mr Philemon, a former Treasurer and Finance Minister. “Did Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare sign the special purpose securities for this community infrastructure project? Or did Treasurer Peter O’Neill sign it? And what role did Department of Treasury play in this deal?” His comments follows the return of Kokopo MP and Communications Minister Patrick Tammur from Sin

Post Courier THE Government has been urged to come clean on the controversial K125m borrowed from National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) to finance community projects in Kokopo, East New Britain. Opposition Deputy leader Bart Philemon said the Government must produce the Cabinet decision that approved the “loan’’ and also called on Nasfund management to explain on what basis and on whose request the K125m loan to the government was approved. “The Government must justify why the whole nation should carry debts for community projects in one district – Kokopo arising from the issuance of this special purpose securities,” said Mr Philemon, a former Treasurer and Finance Minister. “Did Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare sign the special purpose securities for this community infrastructure project? Or did Treasurer Peter O’Neill sign it? And what role did Department of Treasury play in this deal?” His comments follows the return of Kokopo MP and Communications Minister Patrick Tammur from

PACIFIC SCOOP Friends of the Earth International has backed calls from communities around the world for a halt to the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold’s “destructive practices” in Papua New Guinea and other countries. Campaigners were present at the company’s annual general meeting and joined a protest rally outside the meeting venue in Toronto. Barrick Gold, the largest gold miner in the world, has been the subject of many documented studies of human rights abuses and environmental devastation globally, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Tanzania. Friends of the Earth International calls in to question the necessity of the Canadian-owned corporation’s gold mining operations. With the vast majority of gold used for jewellery, Barrick’s gold mines on average use more water than the entire bottle water industry in Canada, and this water is polluted with mining waste products such as cyanide, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and sulphides. Romel de Vera, coo

PACIFIC SCOOP Friends of the Earth International has backed calls from communities around the world for a halt to the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold’s “destructive practices” in Papua New Guinea and other countries. Campaigners were present at the company’s annual general meeting and joined a protest rally outside the meeting venue in Toronto. Barrick Gold, the largest gold miner in the world, has been the subject of many documented studies of human rights abuses and environmental devastation globally, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Tanzania. Friends of the Earth International calls in to question the necessity of the Canadian-owned corporation’s gold mining operations. With the vast majority of gold used for jewellery, Barrick’s gold mines on average use more water than the entire bottle water industry in Canada, and this water is polluted with mining waste products such as cyanide, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and sulphides. Romel de Vera

Dionisia Tabureguci Telikom PNG, snipped and re-shaped by a market forced to open to new competition not too long ago, is gearing itself to take on Papua New Guinea’s emerging broadband era. The fully state-owned telecommunications company falls in the portfolio of the Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC), an entity set up in 2002 to independently hold the majority of state-owned commercial assets and to improve their commercial performance. Last month, IPBC managing director Glenn Blake met with Telikom PNG management and was told the telco had begun to formulate corporate strategies to capitalise on government initiatives flowing from its ICT policy and plans for a national broadband network. “It is important for Telikom, the country’s premier integrated telecommunications company, to continue to restructure and grow its business to provide improved services to the corporate sector and the general public,” Blake said. The government, he added, will support initiatives by T

Dionisia Tabureguci Telikom PNG, snipped and re-shaped by a market forced to open to new competition not too long ago, is gearing itself to take on Papua New Guinea’s emerging broadband era. The fully state-owned telecommunications company falls in the portfolio of the Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC), an entity set up in 2002 to independently hold the majority of state-owned commercial assets and to improve their commercial performance. Last month, IPBC managing director Glenn Blake met with Telikom PNG management and was told the telco had begun to formulate corporate strategies to capitalise on government initiatives flowing from its ICT policy and plans for a national broadband network. “It is important for Telikom, the country’s premier integrated telecommunications company, to continue to restructure and grow its business to provide improved services to the corporate sector and the general public,” Blake said. The government, he added, will support initiatives b

One Country My dear Dr. Maima your article is interesting. But that is all. Both you and Peter Donigi are irresponsible and destructive in your creation of false hopes for our people. Your propositions are not new. They have been asserted, and can be asserted and debated long and hard into the night, as happened in the past. At the end of the day, we have to do what is right and what is responsible for the nation State to survive and prosper. We cannot assert ourselves and our rights by our Constitution, at the same time, deny nationhood and the fecundity of life of a nation perpetuated by the Constitution. We either exist as a nation or we don't. If we exist as a nation by virtue of our Constitution, then that Constitution reserves the right of ownership of the natural resources to us as a nation, not a single group. The resources you speak of belong to the State, by the very Constitution that created the nation State. That is, the resources belong not just to one group of landown

One Country My dear Dr. Maima your article is interesting. But that is all. Both you and Peter Donigi are irresponsible and destructive in your creation of false hopes for our people. Your propositions are not new. They have been asserted, and can be asserted and debated long and hard into the night, as happened in the past. At the end of the day, we have to do what is right and what is responsible for the nation State to survive and prosper. We cannot assert ourselves and our rights by our Constitution, at the same time, deny nationhood and the fecundity of life of a nation perpetuated by the Constitution. We either exist as a nation or we don't. If we exist as a nation by virtue of our Constitution, then that Constitution reserves the right of ownership of the natural resources to us as a nation, not a single group. The resources you speak of belong to the State, by the very Constitution that created the nation State. That is, the resources belong not just to one group of land

John Fowke Observer: I accept all you say in your posted comment on Sunday. However as to, quote-"Mr Fowke, you may say that we need to get more confidence and guts to use our real names. If you have that comment, please spread it across all the internet as a general internet problem, not acting as if its a PNG problem t'sol".- This is not an argument, its an admission. The fact that the internet has provided an easy, ready-to-hand and broadly uncritical, undisciplined canvas for all and sundry to paint their pictures upon doesn't provide an excuse for the use of nom-de-plumes or nicknames as signatures except in hegemonic or dictatorial nations. China or Burma, for instance.On the other hand, I guess its fashionable to do this- and Im not a fashion-person. I'll admit. Fashions are insubstantial things - and in this case, almost always an affectation rather than a necessity. PNG, whilst it does manifest some aspects of hegemonic government, remains staunchly a

John Fowke Observer: I accept all you say in your posted comment on Sunday. However as to, quote-"Mr Fowke, you may say that we need to get more confidence and guts to use our real names. If you have that comment, please spread it across all the internet as a general internet problem, not acting as if its a PNG problem t'sol".- This is not an argument, its an admission. The fact that the internet has provided an easy, ready-to-hand and broadly uncritical, undisciplined canvas for all and sundry to paint their pictures upon doesn't provide an excuse for the use of nom-de-plumes or nicknames as signatures except in hegemonic or dictatorial nations. China or Burma, for instance.On the other hand, I guess its fashionable to do this- and Im not a fashion-person. I'll admit. Fashions are insubstantial things - and in this case, almost always an affectation rather than a necessity. PNG, whilst it does manifest some aspects of hegemonic government, remains staunchl

RUSSELL HANGAT & CLARA MOIMOI The Papua New Guinea Development Strategic Plan (PNGDSP) 2010-2030 maps out a path to transform PNG into a middle income country. It answers the questions of “where is PNG now?”, “where do we want it to be in 2030?” and “how will PNG get there?”. This is the first time PNG has taken a long term focus on development planning and is the first time planning has been fully home grown with donors shut out of the formulation of the PNGDSP. It is the first time we see clearly articulated targets – targets that set middle income standards, that are achievable, and that can be monitored. Importantly it aims to transform poverty corridors into economic corridors with the 10 corridors planned for development covering some of the poorest areas of PNG. The PNGDSP will be implemented through four 5-year medium term development plans (MTDPs) – the first of which is the MTDP 2011-2015 . Key to the MTDP is the planning of resource allocation for achieving