PNGBLOGS

WHEN Prince Charles visited Papua New Guinea half a century ago, he was on a student exchange spent eating yams and bananas in the dorm with local school boys. Yesterday,  his welcome back to the island nation was filled with more pomp and ceremony; a 21-gun salute, thousands of well-wishers, and flower garlands presented by women in tribal dress. Anticipation for the visit, which is part of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, had been building in impoverished PNG, with the Post-Courier newspaper on Friday declaring: "Welcome to Papua New Guinea, Your Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla!" The paper said the visit would be like a "home-coming" for Charles who first travelled to PNG in the 1960s when he was an exchange student in Australia and stayed at the Martyrs' Memorial Anglican School for boys in Northern Province. "The Prince did not stay with the school principal," it said. "He stayed with the boys at Sefoa Ga

WHEN Prince Charles visited Papua New Guinea half a century ago, he was on a student exchange spent eating yams and bananas in the dorm with local school boys. Yesterday,  his welcome back to the island nation was filled with more pomp and ceremony; a 21-gun salute, thousands of well-wishers, and flower garlands presented by women in tribal dress. Anticipation for the visit, which is part of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, had been building in impoverished PNG, with the Post-Courier newspaper on Friday declaring: "Welcome to Papua New Guinea, Your Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla!" The paper said the visit would be like a "home-coming" for Charles who first travelled to PNG in the 1960s when he was an exchange student in Australia and stayed at the Martyrs' Memorial Anglican School for boys in Northern Province. "The Prince did not stay with the school principal," it said. "He stayed with the boys at Sefoa

Australia is giving $8 million in aid to PNG's Manus Island, where it is planning to build an asylum seeker detention centre. The Australian high commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ian Kemish, says the aid, already committed before the asylum centre was planned, will pay for medical scholarships and equipment, and for schools to be built on the small collection of islands that make up Manus province. The aid is coming amid ongoing uncertainty over landowner concerns about the deal, as well as the threat of legal action to halt the opening of the facility. "Australia is committed to assisting PNG achieve improved development outcomes for all Papua New Guineans, and we are already providing significant support to Manus," Mr Kemish said in a statement on Thursday. The high commissioner's statement said a joint assessment mission made up of development experts from AusAid and PNG's Department of National Planning is scheduled to visit Manus next week to conduct a needs

Australia is giving $8 million in aid to PNG's Manus Island, where it is planning to build an asylum seeker detention centre. The Australian high commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ian Kemish, says the aid, already committed before the asylum centre was planned, will pay for medical scholarships and equipment, and for schools to be built on the small collection of islands that make up Manus province. The aid is coming amid ongoing uncertainty over landowner concerns about the deal, as well as the threat of legal action to halt the opening of the facility. "Australia is committed to assisting PNG achieve improved development outcomes for all Papua New Guineans, and we are already providing significant support to Manus," Mr Kemish said in a statement on Thursday. The high commissioner's statement said a joint assessment mission made up of development experts from AusAid and PNG's Department of National Planning is scheduled to visit Manus next week to conduct a needs

Jakarta Globe Papua New Guinea has been given a vote of confidence by ratings service Standard & Poor’s, which on Monday upgraded the country’s long-term sovereign debt credit outlook to stable from negative, citing the Pacific state’s greater political stability following July legislative elections. The rating agency affirmed Indonesia’s eastern neighbor’s current long-term rating at B+, and its short-term rating at B. PNG’s rating is four steps below investment grade, on par with other countries including Bolivia, Nigeria and Ukraine. “The elections resolved the stalemate that existed for nearly a year,” S&P credit analyst Yee Farn Phua said in a statement on Monday. Phua was referring to competing claims for the prime minister’s post between Peter O’Neill and previous premier Michael Somare. The PNG parliament elected O’Neill as prime minister in August 2011 during Somare’s absence due to illness. The Supreme Court then ruled in December that the removal of Som

Jakarta Globe Papua New Guinea has been given a vote of confidence by ratings service Standard & Poor’s, which on Monday upgraded the country’s long-term sovereign debt credit outlook to stable from negative, citing the Pacific state’s greater political stability following July legislative elections. The rating agency affirmed Indonesia’s eastern neighbor’s current long-term rating at B+, and its short-term rating at B. PNG’s rating is four steps below investment grade, on par with other countries including Bolivia, Nigeria and Ukraine. “The elections resolved the stalemate that existed for nearly a year,” S&P credit analyst Yee Farn Phua said in a statement on Monday. Phua was referring to competing claims for the prime minister’s post between Peter O’Neill and previous premier Michael Somare. The PNG parliament elected O’Neill as prime minister in August 2011 during Somare’s absence due to illness. The Supreme Court then ruled in December that the removal of

Introduction On 9 October 2012, the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) released a report , The Demolition of Paga Hill , documenting a forced eviction that took place in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, on 12 May this year. Dozens of homes in the area of Paga Hill were demolished by the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. Those residents who resisted or photographed the forced eviction, were attacked with sticks, iron rods and machetes . At one stage police even fired live rounds at bystanders. The demolition was conducted in order to make way for a luxury estate being spearheaded by the Paga Hill Development Company (PHDC) – a company largely run from Australia. PHDC’s Chairman and Secretary is Gudmundur Fridriksson, an executive who heads the North Queensland, Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. [1] Since the publication of our report, Gudmundur Fridriksson, along with PHDC Director, George Hallit, [2] have made a number of serious allegations on Radi