Unemployment Concerns for PNG
One of PNG’s most pressing needs is creating jobs and income earning opportunities for the burgeoning young population; one might say “school-leavers”, except in PNG nearly half of the school-aged youth have never had the chance to attend school, while the recent literacy survey reports that more than half the population is illiterate; this is a poor indictment of the country’s development focus and performance, especially when there’s enough to dish out on executive jets and mate’s airlines, but not apparently to maintain rural airstrips or support third level operators, like MAF, which provide essential and life-saving services to remote communities. PNG has long had a dual (two speed) economy, with urban and enclave industries on one side, and agriculture and the rest on the other, but now this duality is becoming accentuated, even three speed, with the development of LNG. Once the relative brief (though challenging) construction phase (ending 2014) is complete, direct employment fr