O'NEILL TO IMPLEMENT WORLD BANK STYLE LAND GRAB NEXT YEAR
by MICHAEL JOSEPH PASSINGAN
Peter O’Neill will start implementing a
massive World-Bank style land grab this year using the Small-Medium Enterprise
Policy and Master Plan as a tool to fool customary landholders.
The big winners are expected to be his own
companies and cronies like the Costantinou family, Nii Cragnolini and the
L&A Group, corrupt lawyer Jimmy Maladina and all the other konmen he shares
his loot with.
Customary landowners will be left with no
land and a few crumbs from the business feast.
Item 3.7 of the Master Plan states that beginning
in 2016 the Government will start providing financial support to the Lands
Department “to acquire customary Land.”
Sources within the Lands Department say
that land identified by the O’Neill Regime as essential for business purposes
will be taken over whether customary landowners agree or not.
They will have no say in the price paid,
and there are no avenues for them to appeal or oppose compulsory acquisition.
Land that is acquired will then be handed
over to business at discount prices or under special lease deals.
The SME Policy and Master Plan states that
this year the Lands Department is to “facilitate and make land available for
development and use by SMEs under a new Land Act.”
The policy itself states that it is crucial
“that land is made available for SMEs promotion and development through the key
land reforms that are being instigated.
“Key land reforms by the Government … are
now necessary and critical to make commercial land available and accessible by
SMEs and to facilitate private sector development.”
O’Neill’s SME Policy and Master Plan
provides no mechanisms for transparency and accountability of the acquisition
process or the sale or leasing of customary land to business.
The policy is almost identical to the land
mobilization strategy proposed by the World Bank in the late 90s. It is nothing
more than a land grab for business.
The other big danger in the SME policy is
that O’Neill plans to allocate K3 billion to implement it.
While the plan is big on rhetoric, there is
again no safety mechanism to ensure that O’Neill and his cronies do not steal
and waste the entire amount.
The SME Policy and Master Plan represents
an enormous risk of money and land being stolen and wasted by the O’Neill
Regime on a grand scale.
The details are available for download at
http://www.ndb.com.pg/index. php/products/downloads
http://www.ndb.com.pg/index.
· SME
Policy 2016
· SME
Policy & Master Plan 2016-2030
· SME
Policy & Master Plan 2016-2030 –Summary