The women's MP for Bougainville North, Franseca Semoso, says enrolling to vote for the October vote on independence from Papua New Guinea must be extended beyond this Sunday.
Local newspapers have reported the Bougainville Referendum Commission having already extended the enrolment period until Sunday, but Ms Semoso says many people, even in the region's main town of Buka, have not had a chance to enrol.
She said they must be given more opportunities.
Ms Semoso said, at a minimum, the enrolment period should be extended for another two weeks.
The Bougainville Referendum Commission has ramped up its awareness campaign, sending text messages to people's mobile phones. In October Bougainvilleans will get to vote on whether they want to be independent of Papua New Guinea.
New Dawn FM reported the Chief Referendum Officer, Mauricio Claudio, saying sending text messages had become possible as the commission gained more staffing and resources.
Mr Claudio said all media need to be used to ensure everyone has the same access to information.
He said the commission now has over 500 trained awareness officers covering every ward and urban centre in Bougainville, a website and a Facebook page
Recent research suggests almost three quarters of Bougainville's population has access to a mobile phone.
TOKYO -- Japan, the U.S. and Australia have picked a liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea as their first case for joint financing in the Indo-Pacific region, planning to lend over $1 billion, Nikkei has learned.
Three government-backed lenders -- Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. and Australia's Export Finance and Insurance Corp. -- plan to issue a statement on Tuesday regarding their joint infrastructure efforts.
The three countries agreed in November to join hands in financing infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific to offer an alternative to China's Belt and Road initiative. The LNG project in Papua New Guinea marks the first project in this three-way cooperation.
A team from Japan, the U.S. and Australia discussed the project with the government in Port Moresby in April. Plans will be finalized over the next two to three years. Additional assistance for power plants and communications infrastructure could follow.
Papua New Guinea has picked China's Huawei Technologies to build its internet infrastructure. But Australia, which is helping to develop a naval base on the island nation, worries that military intelligence could be leaked to Beijing through the network. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in November that Washington will help its Australian ally with the naval base.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, Beijing is assisting Vanuatu with building a port, while China and Australia are competing over defense cooperation with Fiji.
Japan, the U.S. and Australia also see other Pacific nations such as the Solomon Islands and Palau as candidates for joint infrastructure financing. They plan to send a delegation to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to examine potential projects.
The three countries will abide by the Group of 20 principles for quality infrastructure investment, drafted at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in early June. The principles are expected to be formally adopted at the G-20 summit in Osaka later this week.
Washington will establish a new agency, the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., as early as October to absorb OPIC. The new lender will have a $60 billion portfolio cap, nearly double OPIC's limit.
Canberra is launching the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific in July with 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.39 billion) in funding, while expanding EFIC.
Combined with Japan's JBIC, which lends out 1.7 trillion yen ($15.8 billion) yearly, the countries will be able to tackle even larger projects in the future.
Gorethy Kenneth | Post Courier | The government will review the fly in-fly out (FIFO) workforce arrangements for foreign workers. This may now put an end to K91 million spent annually on this exercise. Minister for Immigration and Border Security Petrus Thomas announced this yesterday.
Mr Thomas said the Immigration and Citizen Authority (ICA) is now looking at issuing long-term working residence visas by next year which is in line with its organisational reform and improvement of service delivery under its Five-year Corporate Development Plan (2018-22).
The Minister referred to the study carried out by National Research Institute in 1997 on the effects of fly in-fly out on the Porgera mining project which revealed that the PNG economy was losing between K36 million and K91 million annually on direct national income.
He said the Bougainville Copper Mine had successfully maintained a small satellite mining town with classic facilities that were built to accommodate workers for the Bougainville Copper Mine.
“There was sufficient cash flow injected directly into the local communities with high returns gained from the capital investments, he said.
Mr Thomas said these changes to the frequent abuse of the 60-day multiple entry visa by foreigners had prompted him to suspend it last year.
“The multiple entry visa category had been reviewed and will be introduced again once cabinet approves the new conditions, fees and guidelines,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Thomas was of the view that the fly in-fly out practice has also been abused by many foreign em-ployers and contractors after receiving criticisms lately from MPs and concerned landowners of resource project areas.
“The fly in-fly out practice may have worked in some short-lived projects, but the impact of FIFO and contribution to host communities, their social welfare and economy has never been truly assessed in long-term projects,” he said.
Mr Thomas said part of the issue lies in the distant lack of national data. “Various agencies supposed to be integrated to streamline these processes had not succeeded,” he said.
“There was no viable data or studies carried out in the past to justify foreign workers’ fly in-fly outs continuous practice.
“It appears that PNG has been under the notion that the FIFO system works in every particular way and no one bothered to review it.”
Mr Thomas said while the government is embarking on developing few new resource projects like Wafi-Golpu and the Papua LNG Project, it should also be mindful of such fly in-fly out arrangements that could potentially suck opportunities during this thriving economic situation.
MEMBER for Yangoru-Saussia and Minister for National Planning Richard Maru said his district will reward academic excellence as of next year. Maru made the announcement when opening a classroom at Paparom Primary School in the Numbo LLG on June 19. The infrastructure was funded by the Yangoru-Saussia District Development Authority under its district services improvement programme and was built at a cost of K250,000. Maru was particularly pleased to learn that for the past 10 years, Paparom Primary had been in the top 10 of high-performing schools in the province. Last year, the school was ranked first in the district and second in the province in terms of academic excellence. “Clearly Paparom you have done very well in your academic performance, congratulations to the students, teachers and head teacher,” Maru said. He said the focus was now on improving quality education, hence the establishment of a district education academic board to be led by the district CEO and the district’s head teachers of high schools and secondary schools with the role of setting academic standards, tests and exams to ensure the standards in all schools were raised. “We have to get rid of teachers who do not perform,” he said. “They have to go; we don’t need them in Yangoru-Saussia. “I want teachers, staff and schools who focus on academic performance and give the best to our students in the district. “We are spending money on classrooms and I want performance in the classroom. “We are building because we want the best facilities and teachers for our students, so the teachers must perform their duties accordingly. “I want to see an improvement in academic performance on top of our investment in the physical infrastructure.” Maru also announced that starting next year, the district would have an official academic year start – Education Day for Yangoru-Saussia. “On that day, we will give shields and prizes to the top performing schools in the district,” he said. “We will start to reward excellence in public.” He said every year, 30,000 students sit for the grade 12 exams, and that number was growing. Out of that number, 23,000 miss out on securing spaces at higher institutions. Maru said this was the reason why the district was now prioritising quality education to push its students to perform outstandingly at the national level. Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/mp-reveals-plans-for-rewarding-academic-excellence/
Papua New Guinea's new government has been called on to prioritise efforts to combat domestic and gender-based violence. Fiona Hukula of the National Research Institute said various forms of violence against women and children were having lasting impacts on the wider community.
Progress has been made in terms of government endorsing a national strategy against gender based violence, Dr Hukula said.
But high-level co-ordination is needed to properly implement the strategy, she said.
"Our national strategy to prevent and respond to gender-based violence is focussing on prevention, but it has got to be done in a holistic way, and this has got to be led by the government.
"We can't have the agenda being pushed by outsiders or donors, which is a perception at the moment."
Prominent forms of violence against women and children which PNG is grappling with include rape, sexual assault and violence related to sorcery accusations.
"It doesn't only affect the survivor, the woman or the man, but it affects families, it affects communities. It has an effect on jobs because when people are injured, they can't come to work," she said.
According to Dr Hukula, prioritising efforts to combat these would be consistent with the stated aim of new prime minister James Marape to build a strong and resilient economy.
"I think that in order for us to have that strong and resilient economy, we need to have healthy people, we have to address social issues that impact on productivity, employment."
The leader of the Institute's Building Safer Communities programme, Dr Hukula said what was also required was adequate allocation of resources, more workers on the ground in the provinces and increased support for referral processes.
The National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to gender-based violence was endorsed by government in 2016, but Dr Hukula said "that's a piece of paper that needs to be implemented".
She said to date, the Law and Justice Sector had done a good job in overseeing the country's response to domestic and gender-based violence.
"But there's now got to be better connection between other sectors like the health and social sector which is very important.
"People need medical evidence, they need medical help, it's a mental health issue as well."
NATIONAL Planning Minister Richard Maru yesterday counter-signed the financial agreement of the European Union’s 11th Development Fund totalling K340 million for the PNG Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and trade project which will cover the Morobe, Madang and East and West Sepik. Maru told a media conference in Port Moresby yesterday that EU had signed in Brussels so he had to sign on behalf of the PNG Government as the national authorising officer to lock both parties into the agreement. “We will begin the process to provide the detailed scope and work on the programme after the signing of the agreement. “No provincial government is a party to this agreement, the parties are the Government of Papua New Guinea and European Union. “The K340mil comes to the State then through the Department of National Planning, the Government decides how they allocate the funds for the component of the project that we are now embarking on called PNG Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and Trade Project. “This project is not the only one funded by the EU in PNG, there are many other projects. “EU is the second largest donor after Australia, very important partners and values the relationship.” European Development Fund Programme director Roger Kara said after the EU received and recorded the documents, a project steering committee would be established to cover, see and direct the implementation of the project at a higher level. He also said the development of a contribution agreement will also happen which will take six to 12 months that would be the implementation guide at the lower level with the provinces. “With such a large amount of money that’s involved, the government will be fully engaged in this process to ensure that there is relevance and coherence in that particular contribution back to the financial agreement so that we ensure the project is implemented and delivered accordingly,” Kara said. “We will make sure as the department and from EU desk, NAO Unit collaborates intensively with the Department of Agriculture Livestock and PNG Cocoa Board to ensure these things are documented. “We will request that the reporting requirements to the government is cemented so that there is necessary reporting.” Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/minister-signs-deal-for-eus-k340mil-development-fund/
Last May a fisherman in Papua New Guinea went out hunting for shark. But instead of coming home with fish to feed his family he returned with an unexpected catch: A$50m worth of cocaine.
The fisherman was working in the waters near an uninhabited atoll close to his home island of Budi Budi, off the eastern coast of the country, when he found a piece of rope. Following it, he found a disturbed patch of sand and buried in the sand were 11 black duffel bags filled with bars of white powder.
Within two weeks, his chance find would lead to his remote community being threatened by a drug gang, a week-long open-ocean police boat chase, a booby-trapped fishing vessel running aground on a reef, and the disappearance of the huge cocaine haul.
It is one of a string of bizarre stories that have emerged with the rise of drug trafficking through the Pacific, a multibillion-dollar industry that involves cocaine and meth being packed into the hulls of yachts in the US, Latin America and China and sailed to Australia and New Zealand via island nations including Fiji, Tonga and New Caledonia.
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Part of the cocaine bust at Budi Budi in Papua New Guinea. Photograph: Milne Bay province police
As part of the Guardian’s investigation into the route, outlandish stories have emerged: tales of Fijians bumping into huge underwater storage nets filled with cocaine while out on boat trips, and of cocaine washing up on a remote island where locals initially mistook it for washing powder. But the Budi Budi story, which was first reported outside PNG by the Australian, is “the first of its kind” for Papua New Guinea, says Constable Augustine Bengin from the Milne Bay province police, who was called out to the remote island to investigate last May. Budi Budi is part of Papua New Guinea, but only just. The tiny speck of land is 700km (435 miles) from the capital, Port Moresby. There are no police on Budi Budi and the force based at the provincial capital of Alotau, 370km away, have just 40 officers to cover 600 atolls. It takes two helicopter journeys of two hours to reach Budi Budi from Alotau – but the police don’t own a helicopter. By boat, the trip takes 28 hours.
‘They thought it was poisonous’
The fisherman did not know he had dug up cocaine with an Australian street value of about $50m – neither he nor his community had heard of the drug before. They were all afraid to touch the powder, fearing it would harm them. “They thought it was poisonous,” Bengin says.
The community reported the discovery to the mainland via radio but before police could get there a gang of six Chinese men and one Montenegrin arrived on Budi Budi looking for their stash.
“They threatened the village people,” Bengin says. “They were frightened so they gave them the bags back. It’s a very isolated island – anything could have happened.”
The gang opened one of the packages and sampled some of the product, becoming aggressive and threatening to fight the villagers. To placate them, the villagers traded with the gang, swapping vegetables and coconuts for rice and fishing line.
Meanwhile, the man in charge of the island’s two-way radio had managed to hide away one pack of the drugs, containing six 1kg bricks of cocaine, to give to the police for evidence.
By the time the police arrived – three or four days after the original radio call from the villagers – the gang and the drugs had gone.
Residents of Budi Budi with part of the cocaine haul. Photograph: Milne Bay province police
Bengin says the PNG navy sent out a boat and, after a week hunting the vessel, tracked it down on the water.
“When they found the boat it wasn’t travelling, it was floating, they said they had a problem with the engines,” Bengin says.
Police and navy arrested the men but the gang members had booby-trapped the boat, filling it with petrol, which made it too noxious to search. Police tried towing it but it was too heavy. Instead, they took the six men back to the mainland under arrest and arranged for a tugboat to go out to meet the vessel.
“When they went back again, because the boat was drifting, they couldn’t locate it, they searched everywhere,” Bengin says. Months later, the boat was found washed up on a reef on an island off Morobe province, roughly 750km north-west of Budi Budi.
The seven men involved were each convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 18 months in prison. They were released from jail on 17 June and deported to Hong Kong and Montenegro. One was wanted by Interpol.
Bengin is not sure what became of the cocaine. “I’m not sure whether they collected the cocaine from the boat,” he says.
The Guardian contacted the PNG Royal Constabulary, the National Maritime Safety Authority of PNG and the Australian federal police for comment, but none could confirm what had happened to the drugs.
Bengin’s understanding is that the boat was never able to be fully searched and, as it was too heavy to pull to the mainland, it still sits, heavy and toxic with oil, grounded on the reef.
By HELEN TARAWA - The National NATIONAL Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru says donor partners interested in doing business with PNG must agree to spend 50 per cent of their development corporation funds on road infrastructure. Maru, who counter-signed a financial agreement of the European Union’s 11th development fund totalling K340 million for the PNG Rural Entrepreneurship Investment and trade project for four provinces yesterday, said the Government’s relationship with donors was guided by the PNG Development Cooperation Policy 2018 – 2022. “This document says that any donor wanting to do business with PNG through development cooperation funds, 50 per cent of those funds must go to infrastructure while the other 50 per cent can go to other elements,” Maru said. “Papua New Guinea did not make a mistake in arriving in that. “When you want to intervene in PNG in particular, the rural areas agriculture or any other sectors without roads you cannot deliver services.” He said the PNG Development Cooperation Policy guided the Government on how to do business with donors. “We expect them to respect the position PNG Government in our policy because we are a sovereign nation and any partner doing business with PNG must respect our policies and how we do business,” Maru said. “In this case, the partners are the Government through Department of National Planning and Monitoring and I as the national authorising officer and EU. “That is why I’m signing the agreement on behalf of the state today to bind the state in this agreement. “In the negotiations, the partners might not agree on all elements in the way we want the agreement structured. “Certainly, in our case we want roads to be included in this programme and the four provinces of Morobe, Madang, East and West Sepik have been included and we are thankful that EU has accommodated them. “How can you spend K340mil without putting in any road infrastructure. “We have insisted in planning that rural and commodity roads must be part of this scoping. “Our farmers, once you give them farmer training, they must be able to get their products out to the market. “We respect our donors but we expect them to understand our local situation and our context in PNG and have a mutual respect and when we are working on major agreements with major partners.”
A LOCAL car dealer believes the Government should have engaged local businesses in bringing vehicles for the Apec meetings last year.
Freeway Motors owner Sam Tasion, pictured, said the Government had been ill-advised to bring in such vehicles as Maseratis and Bentleys in the first place.
Left: Freeway Motors owner, Sam Tasion
He said such decisions to bring in vehicles should have been left to entrepreneurs, especially car dealers.
Tasion, in response to questions by The National on those vehicles still parked at downtown Port Moresby, said: “After Apec, what’s next? These vehicles are now rusting away near the sea (downtown). Who will supply parts or service the Maseratis?
“Certainly some (people) in the government have hidden motives to bring in the vehicles. After usage, there is no value in the vehicles.
“Millions of kina have been spent to bring them in. Such as the Maseratis – only one Maserati has been sold.
“If Government was to promote SMEs or local businesses, why can’t it buy from local businesses? We (local dealers) have been in the game and know car usage. If there is no political will, there must be business will.
“The Government should promote sustainability, encourage self-sufficiency, impact society and protect national interest.
“What the Government should do now that Apec is gone is to split those vehicles to all local dealers like Boroko Motors, Ela Motors, Freeway and they sell for the country to make money, even if it’s less.”
Tasion further said the price of a Maserati had depreciated by 40 per cent or approximately K250,000.
Freeway Motors is a subsidiary of the Tasion Group of which Tasion, from Manus, is the chairman.
WEWAK Member of Parliament (MP) Kevin Isifu was injured in a car accident on the Poreporena Freeway in Konedobu early Sunday morning. Isifu was taken to the Pacific International Hospital (PIH) where he was treated but his condition is unknown. NCD & Central Commander Asst Comm Donald Yamasombi confirmed that Isifu was involved in the accident. “We cannot comment on the circumstances of the accident as the Police Traffic Division is still investigating. “We can only confirm the car accident occurred on the Poreporena Freeway in Konedobu. “Isifu was taken to the Port Moresby General Emergency Ward,” he added. Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr Sam Yockopua said Isifu was sent to PIH emergency ward. Attempts to get an update on Isifu’s condition from PIH were unsuccessful and neither could the MP be reached for comment. Pictures of the accident scene had been posted in Facebook yesterday, and has garnered more than 700 views and shared by 300 FB members. Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/wewak-mp-isifu-injured-in-car-accident/
Providing Police housing will be a priority of the Marape Steven Government. While the members of the Police Force have received much lip service over the years to address the on-going housing issues it will be a priority issue under the new Government. My office has already commenced discussions with the Chairman of country's largest Superannuation Fund, Namabwan Super, Anthony Smare, on developing a strategy in partnership with Government to address Police Housing.
Mr. Smare explained that Namabawan Super have plans to build 3,000 plus housing estates at 9 mile in Port Moresby. A project I hope the Government will buy into, providing some 1,000+ houses to members of the Police Force and their families. In addition to the Government housing component, we also discussed establishing a Police home ownership scheme where officers who have served over 10/15 years will quality for a home ownership scheme at cost.
There is no point for the Government to provide Police housing only to kick them out on the street without any recognition of their service to the country.
Last week I took the initiative to contact Red Sea Company who were contracted to built the 150 Police Housing Project at Bomana in 2015. A project that cost some K52 million and to-date remains incomplete on account of the previous Government's failure to meet its financial obligations. K40 million is still owed and contractor has yet to connect the power, water and sewerage facilities. Further, they are still to be furnished. We will also look at corporate tax credit schemes to start building police housing around the country.
On 8th July 2019, I will be officiating the opening of Gusap Police Housing Project in Ramu, a project funded by New Britain Palm Oil Ltd under a tax credit scheme. The company built 14 x 3 bedroom houses, 2 x12 single man quarters, 1x administration building, armory, heli-pad and back up power at a total cost of just K4.6 million.
My office will be looking at duplicating similar projects in other provinces as well as upgrading existing police houses that are in disrepair.
While it will a priority of the Marape Steven Government to improve the welfare of our 7000+ Police Force members, they will also be expected to clean up their act in providing services to the community and country or be terminated.
Picture Minister for Police and Chairman for Nambawan Super Anthony Smare taken at the Speakers Summit.
