PNGBLOGS

PAPUA New Guinea's foreign minister has vowed Manus Island residents will be involved in the permanent asylum seeker facility amid threats of sabotage to the temporary processing camp. Foreign minister Rimbink Pato said there has been a lack of communication between PNG's national government and provincial administrators over Australia's plans for the asylum seeker facility on Manus Island. "There has been a lack of communication," Mr Pato told The National newspaper. "Locals will be involved in the permanent processing centre. "We have now resolved the matter and will continue to resolve any matter that comes up." Landowner groups say they have missed out on building and service contracts for the facility and fear most of the spin-off economic benefit will end up back in Australia or on mainland PNG. One landowner representative, Mary Handen, told AAP her group met Manus officials briefly on Friday and have since had a series of meetings reschedule

PAPUA New Guinea's foreign minister has vowed Manus Island residents will be involved in the permanent asylum seeker facility amid threats of sabotage to the temporary processing camp. Foreign minister Rimbink Pato said there has been a lack of communication between PNG's national government and provincial administrators over Australia's plans for the asylum seeker facility on Manus Island. "There has been a lack of communication," Mr Pato told The National newspaper. "Locals will be involved in the permanent processing centre. "We have now resolved the matter and will continue to resolve any matter that comes up." Landowner groups say they have missed out on building and service contracts for the facility and fear most of the spin-off economic benefit will end up back in Australia or on mainland PNG. One landowner representative, Mary Handen, told AAP her group met Manus officials briefly on Friday and have since had a series of meetings reschedule

This article is in response to the derogatory and malicious remarks that appeared in Facebook Papua New Guinea Blogs on 16 October 2012 under the title “Crook businessman in PNGSDP Board”. The author of that article has abused the privileges of Facebook by falsely accusing PNGSDP chairman Prof Ross Garnaut of appointing prominent PNG accountant and businessman Rex Paki to the board. Much of the article is lifted from a recent report on the “Demolition of Paga Hill” by a UK-based non-government organization and is merely a character assassination of Mr Paki on issues that are considered water under the bridge. The key facts of these matters are: •    Rex Paki was appointed to the PNGSDP Board by the Minister for Treasury as the State’s representative. He was not appointed by Prof Ross Garnaut who nonetheless values Mr Paki’s contributions as a Board member and will defend his appointment. CEO David Sode also holds Mr Paki in high regard. •    Rex Paki has appeared before only the NPF Co

This article is in response to the derogatory and malicious remarks that appeared in Facebook Papua New Guinea Blogs on 16 October 2012 under the title “Crook businessman in PNGSDP Board”. The author of that article has abused the privileges of Facebook by falsely accusing PNGSDP chairman Prof Ross Garnaut of appointing prominent PNG accountant and businessman Rex Paki to the board. Much of the article is lifted from a recent report on the “Demolition of Paga Hill” by a UK-based non-government organization and is merely a character assassination of Mr Paki on issues that are considered water under the bridge. The key facts of these matters are: •    Rex Paki was appointed to the PNGSDP Board by the Minister for Treasury as the State’s representative. He was not appointed by Prof Ross Garnaut who nonetheless values Mr Paki’s contributions as a Board member and will defend his appointment. CEO David Sode also holds Mr Paki in high regard. •    Rex Paki has appeared before only

By ANDREW PASCOE THE state’s controversial Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) project – a USD$235 million proposal to develop a free trade industrial zone in Madang – is officially on hold. Today Madang Court ordered all progress on the PMIZ project to cease until the court makes a decision on whether the proposed development has sufficient legal grounds to proceed. The decision put an immediate freeze on a US$200 million Chinese loan to develop the project – just a week before the PNG Government was to access $3 million from the loan to progress development of the PMIZ. Lawyers representing hundreds of aggrieved customary landowners in Vidar, Madang will seek to have the loan agreement put on ice permanently when they return to court next month. Twivey Lawyers will argue the loan agreement - signed on 31 May 2011 by then Minister for Commerce and Industry Gabriel Kapris for the purpose of building the PMIZ - is illegal and unconstitutional. They will argue the contract jeopardises

By ANDREW PASCOE THE state’s controversial Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) project – a USD$235 million proposal to develop a free trade industrial zone in Madang – is officially on hold. Today Madang Court ordered all progress on the PMIZ project to cease until the court makes a decision on whether the proposed development has sufficient legal grounds to proceed. The decision put an immediate freeze on a US$200 million Chinese loan to develop the project – just a week before the PNG Government was to access $3 million from the loan to progress development of the PMIZ. Lawyers representing hundreds of aggrieved customary landowners in Vidar, Madang will seek to have the loan agreement put on ice permanently when they return to court next month. Twivey Lawyers will argue the loan agreement - signed on 31 May 2011 by then Minister for Commerce and Industry Gabriel Kapris for the purpose of building the PMIZ - is illegal and unconstitutional. They will argue the contract jeopardise

THE government and, indeed the whole of PNG, have been carried away by the advent of the liquefied natural gas project. An agreement was signed into existence in the greatest of haste and meetings to tie up benefits sharing agreements were done in whirlpool tours that left participants exhausted and landowners dazed and confused. In the end, the government might have given away more than it ought to have but time will tell. But the impact of the LNG project is immediate and devastating upon the agricultural sector in Papua New Guinea, the industry which supports the majority of the population. Costs have gone up exponentially for the agriculture and manufacturing sector as a direct result of the LNG project in what is termed the Dutch Disease. Also described as the resources curse, this term refers to the economic phenomenon where an increase in exploitation of natural resources often results in a decline in other sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture. An increase in revenues f