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PNG learning not to count all its LNG chickens before they hatch

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By ROWAN CALLICK There's a common view around, even in Australia where after all these years people really should know better, that mining is merely about digging stuff up and shipping it to eager buyers. Those who think this may well also believe that “attracting” miners is a redundancy: that there's a load of mining money around, and the trick is to choose the best, fight off the rest, and then regulate them sufficiently to make sure they don't utterly destroy the environment, and take off without having paid any taxes. Our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, offers a good insight as to how difficult it can be to build and maintain a mining industry, and how relatively easy it can be to lose one. Independent PNG, like Australia today, has been substantially built on its resources industry. About 80 per cent of its export earnings comes from resources -- chiefly, until liquefied natural gas kicks in in a couple of years, from minerals. The big persisting dangers for PNG i

PNG learning not to count all its LNG chickens before they hatch

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By ROWAN CALLICK There's a common view around, even in Australia where after all these years people really should know better, that mining is merely about digging stuff up and shipping it to eager buyers. Those who think this may well also believe that “attracting” miners is a redundancy: that there's a load of mining money around, and the trick is to choose the best, fight off the rest, and then regulate them sufficiently to make sure they don't utterly destroy the environment, and take off without having paid any taxes. Our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, offers a good insight as to how difficult it can be to build and maintain a mining industry, and how relatively easy it can be to lose one. Independent PNG, like Australia today, has been substantially built on its resources industry. About 80 per cent of its export earnings comes from resources -- chiefly, until liquefied natural gas kicks in in a couple of years, from minerals. The big persisting dang

Give power plants to super-funds

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THERE is talk of a plan to build a new 40 megawatt power plant in Port Moresby to complement the electricity supplied by the PNG Power Rouna hydro scheme, its diesel generated plants and those supplied by the private Kanudi power plant. Word on the grapevine is that there has been a great deal of interest shown by companies, both from within and outside, vying to build the plant. To our mind, the government must take a long-term view on the issue of who is engaged to provide services to Papua New Guinea. It is true that there is a lot of interest in building a power plant for Port Moresby because there is a big market for it. It would be a profitable venture. The same interest would not be shown if the tenders were out for a power plant for Banz in Jiwaka or Bogia in Madang, Maprik in East Sepik or any of the other small townships around the country. Yet, these places need provision of power, perhaps more so than those places which already have access to power supply. So those companie

Give power plants to super-funds

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THERE is talk of a plan to build a new 40 megawatt power plant in Port Moresby to complement the electricity supplied by the PNG Power Rouna hydro scheme, its diesel generated plants and those supplied by the private Kanudi power plant. Word on the grapevine is that there has been a great deal of interest shown by companies, both from within and outside, vying to build the plant. To our mind, the government must take a long-term view on the issue of who is engaged to provide services to Papua New Guinea. It is true that there is a lot of interest in building a power plant for Port Moresby because there is a big market for it. It would be a profitable venture. The same interest would not be shown if the tenders were out for a power plant for Banz in Jiwaka or Bogia in Madang, Maprik in East Sepik or any of the other small townships around the country. Yet, these places need provision of power, perhaps more so than those places which already have access to power supply. So thos

PNG Leaders lack integrity

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IT has become patently obvious that some of our national leaders are taking advantage of their positions as policy makers and the legislators of this land. Whenever we hear of parliamentarians involved in deals between the state and big businesses, the ever-present shadow of corruption seems to loom large. Have we ever asked ourselves why many members live lavish lifestyles after they have been elected to office? If they were men of wealth and power before parliament, how their riches seem to have increased manifold. How many, if not all of them, entered office as individuals of modest means, but have somehow become the clichéd “overnight millionaire”? Do we stop to question their conduct in a way that does not rely on the “what’s in it for me” attitude? Have we stopped to really ponder why the culture on self-enrichment and placing oneself ahead of the greater good seems to be a significantly accurate epithet for leadership in this country? This may not be true for all our nation’s le

PNG Leaders lack integrity

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IT has become patently obvious that some of our national leaders are taking advantage of their positions as policy makers and the legislators of this land. Whenever we hear of parliamentarians involved in deals between the state and big businesses, the ever-present shadow of corruption seems to loom large. Have we ever asked ourselves why many members live lavish lifestyles after they have been elected to office? If they were men of wealth and power before parliament, how their riches seem to have increased manifold. How many, if not all of them, entered office as individuals of modest means, but have somehow become the clichéd “overnight millionaire”? Do we stop to question their conduct in a way that does not rely on the “what’s in it for me” attitude? Have we stopped to really ponder why the culture on self-enrichment and placing oneself ahead of the greater good seems to be a significantly accurate epithet for leadership in this country? This may not be true for all o

Border markers missing: PNG Official

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Monuments along the country’s international land border with Indonesia are deteriorating, Department of Western national agency coordinator Richard Aria says. He said the national government had ignored the international border monuments by not funding for their maintenances. “We have more than 50 monuments, some still remain as cement markers and it is hard to locate them without the use of GPS devices,” he said. Aria said the border posts run from Wutung in West Sepik on the meridian 141 and alter at the Fly River bulge then across the remote mountains and down the swamplands to the mouth of Torasi River in Western. “The monuments on the border are deteriorating, nobody knows the divide,” he said. “It’s very confusing because we have the local villagers on the border, and the monuments will signal to them to be officially recognised as Papua New Guineans. “When the monuments deteriorated at Torasi area, the Indonesians built a new sign board and put their flags 30m east into the PNG