Prime Minister backs medium-term plan

THE prime minister said next year’s budget, to be brought down in parliament next week, will represent the start of the medium-term development plan for the first five years to 2015, The National reports.
He said under the MTDP, the government was targeting a development expenditure of K36 billion over five years to create an additional 315,200 jobs throughout Papua New Guinea by 2015.
Sir Michael said the MTDP was also the first five-year stage in the government’s broader strategy of the 20-year development strategy plan (PNGDSP) and the realisation of the Vision 2050 programmes, which would provide the overall direction of PNG’s development initiatives for the next 40 years.
“These programmes collectively form the building blocks for economic development and prosperity of our nation for future generations,” Sir Michael said in a statement yesterday.
The plan would aim to achieve an average economic growth of 8.5% a year which would result in a healthy rise in the average GDP per person from K3, 430 this year to K4, 638 by 2015, he added.
“The MTDP now becomes the cornerstone for all national, sectoral, provincial, district and local government plans.
“It provides cohesion, direction, rigour, deliverable targets, measurability and accountability for all sector development activities.
“Above all, it is a programme that enables the whole nation to pull together in a team effort to realise Vision 2050.”
The most significant aspects of the MTDP included:

Ø       The upgrading of 16 national priority roads, construction of 16 “missing link” roads and construction of four additional economic corridor national roads;

Ø       The construction of 315 new aid posts around the country in line with targets set for 2030 under the DSP. The plan required the Department of Health to hire 50 additional doctors and 787 nurses by 2015;

Ø       In the education sector, 1,678 new primary and secondary schools would be built across the nation in every province with more than 9,800 teachers to be recruited in the next five years;
. In higher education, about 21,500 university places would be created, 6,800 technical and business college places, 8,000 teacher places, 5,000 nursing places, 3,700 vocational training institution places and improved access to internet and communication technologies; and

Ø       K1.1 billion will be spent to improve the law and order situation.
Job creation within the MTDP was expected to be dramatic with 87,300 jobs created by the end of next year and 315,200 more Papua New Guineans to have jobs by 2015.
About 239,000 of these government and private sector jobs would be in the “urban formal” sector with most of the balance representing additional rural employment at the “informal level” in a village environment, Sir Michael said.