PUBLIC AFFAIRS with SUSUVE LAUMAEA

One of Papua New Guinea’s top newspaper columnists, Susuve Laumaea, who writes for the weekly Sunday Chronicle, will now contribute regularly the same column to this blog, or at least until he gets his own blog up and running. Veteran journalist Susuve’s writing is absorbing and is essential reading for all Papua New Guineans with a concern for our beloved country, as well as as Papua New Guinea watchers from all around the world. Susuve’s contact details are below his column so that you can get in touch with him directly. Enjoy…MALUM

National affairs need more attention

THERE are a great many national affairs issues that aren’t getting the type of prominence from government as they deserve.

Responsible leaders are not keeping a thorough watch.

Too many crucial issues are hibernating on the back-burner.

First up politicians, unionists and commentators of all shapes and forms like to knock the public service for being a stumbling block to implementation and delivery of public goods, services and the nation’s annual development budgets.

Don’t just criticise the bureaucracy’s cumbersomeness.

Do something to improve it and make it responsive and efficient.

Do not retire experienced public servants at the mandatory retirement age of 60 years unless they are total no hopers.

Disband the various reform think tanks and create in-house training programs for all the departments and provincial administrations.

At least apply some practical hands-on approach to human resource rejuvenation, refocusing and service culture redevelopment – not the crappy untried academic tomes that are generated week in and week out or the seminars and workshops that are quickly becoming local tourism junkets.

Rejuvenating and refocusing the public service to develop a new culture of worth ethics is not a mean ask.

Some of the systems, conditions and terms of services and participation are archaic and need to be harmonised and modernised to provide for the times that have changed and are changing.

Public servants deployed in crucial economic and social sectors of the public sector workforce need to be properly remunerated.

These are the special interest groups within the public sector workforce – represented by public sector unions -- who feel they are badly done by and deserve pay rises. If that pay increment does not eventuate then they’d go on strike and stop work even if it meant sick patients would go without attention from nurses and doctors or school children miss out on classes.

Readers who have followed current affairs in the media will know that PNG teachers are a very frustrated bunch who needs to be looked after.

And why shouldn’t they be?

They are an impoverished and marginalised workforce.

Infact they and other frontline workers such as policemen and women, nurses, medical orderlies and doctors deserve to be awarded the most attractive pay and conditions package among all public servants.

Health, law enforcement and education workers are the most important group of workers in PNG.

They operate in the engine rooms that can make or break this nation.

Teachers and medical workers deal with the human resource of this country.

Politicians can sing and dance about political stability and windfall monetary gains but the real determining factor of the health of a nation’s economy is the poverty, wealth and health indicators of the population at large.

Our social indicators show PNG up as a very poor nation in terms of unacceptably high level of law and order problems, poor health and education facilities and services.

The recipe that we stare right in the face everyday is one of a nation that’s sitting on a time-bomb of lawlessness, chronic unemployment and a groundswell of uneducated or undereducated and sickly unhealthy population that will not take the nation to the next level of happiness, health and wealthy in 20 years time if not sooner.

What are we doing about these very real problems?

Huge chunks of money are now going to the districts or to infrastructure development projects that are contracted to the same old few contractors who keep making millions of kina and delivering poorly finished and substandard roads and other capital works.

Will the district expenditure programs prioritise law and order, health and education spending?

Down the pecking order highly irregular appointments are made to chief executive positions in the public sector or court judgments for reinstatement of illegally displaced or suspended senior officials with departments do not get actioned decisively.

That recent appointment of a total unknown person to act as administrator of troubled Gulf Province is a joke.

Where did Governor Havila Kavo and legal advisors Emmanuel Mai and Sarea Soi find this man?

Why did they not advertise publicly and get a suitably qualified, experienced and a respected Papua New Guinean to fill the vacancy while the tug of war between the Governor and the suspended administrator Miai Larelake exhausted its day in court? Come on, Gulf is not a cowboy country and Gulf people are not from Planet Mars.

This is a province that’s going to be the host of over K15 billion worth of oil and gas-based development and it needs level-headed direction and leadership at the political and administrative levels – not politically opportunistic and personal avarice-driven agendas. Position the right people in the right places to move the province forward and onto a higher level of happiness, health and wealth than its present sorry state.

Doesn’t anyone care at all?

At the national public service level there is also important departmental leadership issues outstanding at that very crucial Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration. The passport scams issue has not been resolved.

There is no assertive leadership at the top level, it seems because the department head position is held by an acting appointee.

Senior management officers are either suspended, ignored or receiving no delegation to perform.

The case of reinstatement of a departmental deputy secretary, Ms Lucy Bogari, is one that has been frowned upon and treated with considerable contempt by the acting secretary despite directions to the contrary by the Public Services Commission, the Department of Personnel Management, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration and the National Court.

Is this person indispensably above the law or is he above the Minister, the PSC, the DPM and the National Court? Hey, come one, have this matter straightened out.

This cannot go on for ever, can it?

Someone higher up has to put his foot down. PNG needs a predictable Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration management leadership promptly.

There are too many international issues that are not getting enough attention.

The department’s timely intervention in issues such as the seasonal workers scheme in Australia is sadly lacking.

It is a topic that is abuzz among the Pacific media community. Seasonal workers program is a bilateral scheme that’s been dissected over and over following a Ms Lynda Ridgeway’s media appeal to regulate who gets into Australia from PNG under the seasonal worker scheme.

She’s gone through a traumatic experience and we can all understand where she’s coming from.

But she must have the grace – and it is only a small ask – to isolate the criminal and condemn the individual responsible for the crime.

Leave the rest of us along. That’s what this scribe would tell Lynda Ridgeway – the angry and traumatised Australian mother -- whose eight-year-old child was sexually abused by a “sickly ignoramus” who should have served the full five-year jail term under the toughest conditions possible.

There are two issues involved that Ms Ridgeway has drawn attention to for the authorities.

The first is the criminal act for which the Papua New Guinean involved as served 22 months of a five-year jail term and has been deported home to PNG.

Understandably and with all due sympathy Ms Ridgeway is angry and traumatised by this unwelcome intrusion into the sanctity of her family.

As a parent this scribe would not only feel the same but possibly resort to PNG-style “jungle law”.

The second issue is of how she has taken her experience and linked it to her advocacy for all Papua New Guineans entering Australia under the bilateral assistance scheme of “seasonal workers” under the auspices of Australia-PNG relation to be rigorously screened.

She does not want sex criminals, predators, paedophiles or potential sex criminals entering Australia and repeating sex offences similar to that which happened to her child. Ms Ridgeway is a traumatised parent for the experience she has faced but her argument needs to be put in a more focused and appropriate perspective.

Ms Ridgeway was the parent who befriended the Papua New Guinean in the first place. As a responsible parent she should have thoroughly checked the type of person she was befriending or entrusting the safety of her child.

Why begin screaming for security screens and criminal report checks after the event?

An isolated criminal conduct overseas -- as heinous or as intolerable as it is in the case attributed to in this article -- by a Papua New Guinean is no justification to taint all other God-fearing and law-abiding PNG citizens with the same paint-brush.

We are not all rapists and child abusers like that poor excuse of a human being so hold your peace, madam.

All decent human beings irrespective of race, creed or colour would condemn any crime – serious or otherwise – in the strongest terms possible.

Situations must be adjudged in a properly focused perspective. This scribe has no sympathy for child molesters and abusers, rapists, women bashers, paedophiles, racists and anyone else who has no respect for humankind or property that belongs to another person.

Sometimes it becomes a little too offensive when non-Papua New Guineans make generalised “below-the-belt” remarks about all PNG citizens with allusion to alleged criminally-induced “below-the-belt” conduct by one or two individuals.

We are not all criminals or potential criminals.

How would Ms Ridgeway and her wantoks or fellow Aussies feel and react if discarded and destitute PNG mother in the streets of Australia referred to father or fathers of her children as a criminal and then insisted that all Australian males were the same?

Nobody in Australia would take too kindly to that kind of paint job, wouldn’t they?

It’s a bit like an equation in Pythagoras’s Theorem -- in trigonometry -- where what you do to one side, you do on the other to arrive at a win-win solution.

So, Ms Ridgeway, why don’t you just chill?

We are a proud people too.

Papua New Guineans generally live our lives communally. Papua New Guineans fend for their aged family members and do not isolate or incarcerate them in senior citizens’ homes.

We look after the unfortunate in our tribes, clans and extended families by adoptions, sharing, caring and loving each other.

Offences of the type referred to by Ms Ridgeway are swiftly dealt with and punished appropriately in our tribal culture.

The culture we have is not uncommon.

It is very much alive and happens elsewhere too in the developing world in Asia, Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean.

These are life-styles based on and built upon a living and widespread ethnic culture of loving, caring and sharing tribal, clan and family wealth and fortunes going back to dreamtime as native Australians would say.

Do we need these seasonal fruit picker jobs in Australia?

The answer should be a resounding nay.

Why is this scheme necessary?

That’s the poser by The National daily newspaper on Friday in its editorial.

The editorial went on to say: “Papua New Guineans have every right to point to it with embarrassment and irritation. “As a South Pacific nation of more than six million people and 33 years of independence, questions are increasingly asked about the slow rate of our development.

“Those who support this proposal point to attaining skills in another country, the opportunity to earn reasonable money for a hard day’s work and the chance to broaden the experience of those who take part.

“Little is heard of successive PNG government failure to bring development to our rural people, to set up a wide range of projects on their behalf and thereby generate employment.

“This seasonal assistance project may take a small bite out of our huge unemployment figures and it could help repair the fraught relationship between PNG and Australia, frayed by differing agendas and conflicting personalities.

“PNG must make sure that our workers are not let into Australia on sufferance, but in a genuine effort to bring benefits to both countries.

Any lesser goals would be indefensible.”

This scribe could not agree more.

• Share your views with the writer at mailto: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com or SMS to: (675) 6845168.

Ties between PNG Forest Products and mining continue to grow

Captions: 1. Treasury kits, Bulolo. 2. Police houses, Bulolo. 3. Transportables, Hidden Valley

The long relationship between PNG Forest Products and the mining industry continues to strengthen.

A new 600-man camp together with all furniture, being constructed by PNGFP Building Systems has been supplied to Morobe Mining Joint Ventures at Hidden Valley, to help accommodate the large new workforce expected to be employed at the new mine.

This is in addition to ongoing supply of kitset buildings to Lihir Gold Limited, Higaturu Oil Palm, Ramu Sugar, Oil Search Limited, Guadalcanal Oil Palm Solomon Islands and many types of buildings including residential houses, classrooms, relocations houses and others.

The modern-day acceptance of pre-fabricated pine buildings as being suitable for all industry needs in PNG echoes the original foundations of the forest resource at Bulolo and the manufacturing industry that derives from it.

Perhaps only historians would know it today, but PNG Forest Products evolved as a timber company from the Bulolo Gold Dredging Company, which began operations in the late 1920’s, dredging alluvial gold from the large gravel deposits in the river valleys around Wau and Bulolo.

The success of the gold recovery operations, and its associated airlifts and gold rushes, is the stuff of legend.

It became necessary for the company to set up a sawmill, to manufacture the necessary buildings to house workers and their families, as well as accommodating the infrastructure needed to run a successful operation.

But perhaps the most remarkable achievement occurred as mining operations were in decline.

As mining was running down and finally ending, the timber milling facilities actually grew, and in 1954 the first plymill in PNG began operations.

Exports of timber products became a major part of the operation until the early 1980’s.

The progressive-thinking company saw the need for a range of affordable kitset type houses and began a ‘Design and Manufacture Programme’.

Success has been continuous.

The company employs approximately 1,200 workers at its head office and manufacturing base in the original home town, Bulolo.

PNG Forest Products Building Systems has been producing kitset houses for over 25 years, and is PNG’s leading provider of Kitset Buildings.

These are prefabricated from ACQ & CCA Pressured Treated Plantation Pine, producing a permanent product with little or no maintenance.

PNG Forest Products Ltd also produces approximately 12,000 cubic metres of plywood products annually and a similar volume of sawn timber,

PNG Forest Products' proud history of helping Papua New Guinea develop over 50 years

Captions: 1. Plantation pine at Bulolo. 2. Golden Pine Plantations, Bulololo. 3. Lower Baiune Power Station, Bulolo

PNG Forest Products evolved from Bulolo Gold Dredging Limited that commenced operations in large-scale alluvial mining in the late 1920’s.

The Bulolo region was at the time one of the largest gold fields in the world.

A total of seven dredges scoured the valley floor, dredging thousands of tones of high grade gold-bearing ore.

As the mining operation scaled down, the plywood factory and sawmill were constructed.

In collaboration with the then government, the pine plantations were also established at this time.

In 1954, plywood production and the export of product to overseas destinations commenced.

From the early 1950’s the company has been involved in the conversion of both hardwood and plantation resource to high value end products.

Today, PNG Forest Products is the leading producer of timber and plywood products using only 100% plantation pine.

Its products include prefabricated houses, dressed timber and mouldings, treated power poles, export high grade plywood and veneers.

The company operates a 5.5MW Hydro Power Station at Baiune which was built pre-war to supply power to the gold dredges.

Today, it supplies the total power requirements for the company township of Bulolo and Wau.

PNG Forest Products is truly a self-sufficient organisation with retail stores, freezers, bakeries and a cattle farm.

 

Meet my youngest son, Keith

This is my 16-month-old son, Keith, the last of my four young children, and someone who has been so close to me since the untimely death of his beloved mother and my wife Hula (you can read her story by clicking her name in this story), on Easter Sunday this year.

Malum

FORUM ECONOMIC MINISTERS' MEETING (FEMM) TO DISCUSS FOOD AND ENERGY SECURITY IN THE REGION

Food and energy security in the region will be high on the agenda when the Forum Economic Ministers meet in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 27 – 29 October for their annual meeting.

“The agenda of this year’s FEMM reflects the direction provided by the Forum Leaders, particularly on the need for sharing national experiences around food and energy security and also to consider what regional cooperative efforts might help to mitigate some of the worst effects of the shifts in global prices,” says Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Mr Slade adds: “There have been unprecedented developments in the global financial markets in recent weeks. With global economic slowdown associated with the financial crisis, the Forum Island Countries stand to be affected  through  an inevitable stifling of demand for our exports and services, including tourism, as well as possible reductions in aid inflows. .

“However, there are some positive developments as well in terms of the fall in oil prices, although commodity prices remain at much higher levels than we have experienced on average over the last five years. This remains a significant concern for policy makers in our region, particularly given the heavy reliance of our member countries on oil imports and the macroeconomic and household level impacts.”

“As requested by Forum Leaders at their meeting in Niue in August, the Forum Secretariat will present a proposal for regional cooperation in bulk procurement of petroleum products for discussion by the Ministers.  This is one of the fundamental regional mechanisms to provide supply security and address high fuel prices,” says Mr Slade.

The meeting in Port Vila will also get an update on the implementation of past decisions made by FEMM. In particular, discussions will include the development of regional support to audit services to improve integrity and financial security based on the progress made through the Pacific Regional Audit Initiative as well as on developments on temporary movement of labour.

Other issues on the agenda include regional options for assistance with economic regulation, and financial sector supervision in Forum Island Countries.

For more information, contact, Mr Sanjesh Naidu, the Forum Secretariat’s Economic Adviser, Economic Governance Programme, on phone 679 331 2600 or email: sanjeshn@forumsec.org.fj

 

Singsing pictures from Upper Watut, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

I was in the remote Upper Watut local level government (LLG) area of the Bulolo District of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, with local MP Sam Basil to deliver an ambulance (you can read the story by scrolling down or clicking the work ‘ambulance’ on this story) for the people.

The people were ecstatic with their new ambulance and put on a traditional welcome song for Mr Basil and other invited guests.

These are some pictures of the occasion which I took.

 

Malum

Blogs Hunger for Your Brand

By ANITA CAMPBELL

A great place to build your brand is through blogs.  Many bloggers actually want to talk about your brand.They gladly display advertising for your brand. They hunger for news about your brand.How do I know that?  It’s all profiled in the recent 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report by Technorati.com, the blog tracking service.

Each year Technorati writes a State of the Blogosphere Report. http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/   For the first time in 2008 the State of the Blogosphere Report addresses the subject of brands.   It’s a gold mine of information.  So let’s dive in and see what it tells us.

Bloggers Talk About Brands Frequently

Bloggers talk about companies’ brands all the time.  Brands now play a major part in bloggers’ online conversations, as several of the Report’s findings note:

·                       More than 80% of bloggers post product or brand reviews, and write about brands they love or hate. Even day-to-day experiences with customer care or in a retail store are fodder for blog posts.

·                       37% of bloggers post product reviews or brand reviews “frequently”

·                       Companies today are reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates.

·                       The majority of bloggers now accept and display advertising on their blogs.

Blogs Have Become Credible and Influential Sources

Perceptions about blogs have shifted since the early years of blogging.  If you had this picture in your mind of nut wings blogging in their pajamas in their parents’ basements repeating tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories, you are missing what’s happening with blogs.  Simply put, blogs have come to be seen as credible, influential sources – so much so that today, bloggers look primarily to other blogs for their information, instead of to the mainstream media:

·                       71% of bloggers believe that blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information. Blogs are getting accepted.

·                       49% believe blogs are just as valid media sources as traditional media!  Let that sink in a moment: almost half of bloggers believe that reading something on another blog is just as valid as reading it in, say, your local newspaper.

·                       61% say that blogs have advertising and content that entice them to learn more about products and services.  In fact, among bloggers, blogs are the #1 most influential source of information about brands – more so than mainstream media in print or on TV.

5 Take-Aways

I suggest there are 5 key take-aways from the State of the Blogosphere Report 2008 for small businesses when it comes to your brand-building efforts:

(1) Bloggers find it a natural thing to discuss brands on their blogs if those brands capture their attention in some way, good or bad (hopefully in your case all good).  So don’t hold back from reaching out to bloggers.  Blogs are now accepted places for reviewing a product, introducing a new product or service, or announcing a new marketing initiative.  Blogs also welcome advertising messages highlighting your products and services, with the majority of bloggers now displaying ads on their sites.

(2) Blogs are credible sources of news and information.  In other words, being seen on a blog can be as valid as being seen in mainstream media – more informal perhaps, but valid.  It’s no wonder that many large corporations today proudly recognize product-reviews by blogs among their press mentions on their websites.  Large corporations welcome – they seek out – mentions on blogs.  Why not take a page out of their book?

(3) Bloggers are most open to receiving marketing messages from other blogs.  If you want to reach the millions of bloggers (or just that segment of your market which blogs) the best place to do that is to be seen on blogs.  Blogs are the medium where most bloggers get their information today.  In fact, other blogs are the primary place where other bloggers look to get information about products and brands today.

(4) Bloggers as a group are educated and affluent.  Bloggers are a good target market.  The Report found that 75% of U.S. bloggers are college graduates, and 42% have attended graduate school. They skew male, and more than half have a household income over $75,000.  Hmmm, education and money to spend – sounds to me like a good combination for marketing purposes.

(5)  Your competitors are being seen on blogs.  With so many bloggers having been targeted by companies to become brand advocates, in all likelihood that means your competitors are already reaching out to, or advertising in, blogs.  Unless you too are there, you could be at a competitive disadvantage. 

* * * * *

So, definitely consider blogs a fertile ground for building brand awareness and visibility.  The blogosphere is ready for you — in some ways hungers to hear from you and your brand

 

Sam Basil and his mate

Bulolo MP Sam Basil and his pet tree kangaroo at Sam’s home at 14-Mile outside Lae.

 Sam is currently one of the youngest and most proactive members of the current Papua New Guinea Parliament and has won widespread admiration for what he has achieved for his Bulolo Electorate in little over a year.

 

 

Iruupi villagers suffer from 'poisoned' river

The plight of Iruupi villagers in Western province, regarding their Kura River, continues to worsen by the day as government officers in Daru continue to turn them a blind eye.

They now see their Governor Bob Danaya and South Fly MP Sali Subam as having neglected them in the face of something that now threatens their whole livelihood.

Mr Subam declined to comment yesterday (Thursday) when contacted until he had received a detailed report from his officers in Daru about dead aquatic and plant life along the Kura River.

He travelled to Daru yesterday and said he would be in a better position to comment on the matter after he was briefed by his officers.

“I have assisted the officers with logistical support to travel into the area,” Mr Subam said.

“However, I have not received the report from the testing team as yet.

“No comment until I get the report from them.”

However, Iruupi villager Thomas Ame, who travelled with government officers Frank Paliuous (health) and Stanley Jogo (fisheries) to Iruupi on Tuesday this week, said they merely skimmed the surface before returning to Daru instead of spending more time with the villagers.

He said they only interviewed two women who were returning from their garden and a man who had fallen sick after eating taro boiled with water from the Kura.

“The water is going from bad to worse and starting to affect all the people,” Mr Ame said from Daru.

“When you put your legs in the river, they start to itch and swell.

“All the food in the gardens beside the river is affected and there is no goodness in the food.

“The villagers are moving their gardens closer to the village.

“The villagers don’t have any food now and are only eating coconuts and sago.

“Children are hungry

“Those who can afford to, take fresh meat to Daru, sell it, and use the money to buy food from the shops and take back to Iruupi to feed their children.

“Villagers are also complaining about feeling sick after drinking water from the smaller creeks and are now only drinking rain water

Last month, the villagers raised concerns in a letter to Dr Danaya, Mr Subam, and the Departments of Petroleum and Energy and Environment and Conservation about the increasing number of dead fish being found in the Kura.

At the beginning of this month, after no response from relevant government authorities, the villagers again complained about dead fish and crocodiles, as well as birds, pigs, deer and wallaby.

Iruupi, south of Daru near the Torres Strait, is closer to Australia than the Western province capital.

Just in time for Christmas

Captions: 1. Bulolo MP Sam Basil checking out the progress of work along the Gabensis-Muniau Road. 2. Bulldozer working on the Gabensis-Muniau Road. 3.  A section of the Gabensis-Muniau road under construction.

The Buang people of Morobe province will have a timely present for Christmas.

They will be able to use the new-look Gabensis-Muniau (Buang) Road after suffering for many years because of its neglected state.

They have had to travel all the way to Mumeng and then turn off to Buang instead of having the luxury of this shortcut.

Gabensis is a typical Markham village along the Wau-Bulolo Highway while Muniau is in the Buang LLG of Mr Basil’s Bulolo Electorate.

Reconstruction of the road comes under the Bulolo District Road Maintenance Programme (BDRMP) initiated by Bulolo MP Sam Basil.

“We plan to have this short cut road reconstructed before Christmas so that Buang people from all over the country can go home and spend time with their families,” he says.

Team B of the BDRMP is doing the shortcut from Gabensis to Buang, working on gravelling and culverting at the same time.

It has been working on the road for the last three works and expects to complete the task in another three weeks,

“If a private contractor was doing the job of Team B, it would cost us K180, 000 a month, however, we’re doing this at K45, 000 a month,” Mr Basil said.

“I’m talking about working eight hours a day, seven days a week.”

He said the area also had huge untapped potential for tourism.

There is a breathtaking view of the Markham Valley, Nadzab Airport and Lake Wanam stretching all the way to Lae along the Gabensis-Muniau Road.

White cockatoos, hornbills and other birds abound in this forest area surrounded by picturesque hills, rivers and creeks,

“I plan to set up a lookout at this point, together with a barbeque area, where families from Lae can come and relax and have a good time at the weekend,” Mr Basil says.

“There is so much potential for tourism in this area.”

 

Solving the Kumalu River problem

The notorious Kumalu River which terrorises travelers along the Wau-Bulolo Highway could soon be a thing of the past.

Its fast flowing torrents are infamous for claiming lives, burying the one-thriving Mumeng government station under tonnes of rubble as well as sweeping away motor vehicles.

This is becoming a major concern, especially with the boom in mining and prospecting in the area, as well as to the livelihood of the thousands of people of the Bulolo and Menyamya electorates.

The solution is a bypass road through Buang, on to the gold fields of Bulolo and Wau, and further on to Menyamya,

Bulolo MP Sam Basil asked the National Government for funding in the recent Supplementary Budget for this bypass road and K9m of an estimated total cost of K27m has been earmarked for this purpose.

“I’m under a lot of pressure from Hidden Valley and PNG Forest Products to do something about this ongoing problem,” he said.

Landowners from five villages – Kumalu 1 and 2, Mumengtain, Bangalum and Pamelambus – have formed a company called Kumubapa Holdings to tender for the building of the road in a joint venture with Filipino company Benje.

They have met with regional works manager Brian Alois and provincial works manager Nickson Laime in Lae, to push for the release of the funds so that they could start work.

“The landowners from five villages have joined together and formed a company called Kumubapa Holdings,” Mr Basil said.

“Benje will inject the professional component and the landowners will provide the rest.

“I want active landowner participation in all projects in my electorate.

“Apart from this, there are other opportunities in Bulolo for such work, which I want the landowners to participate in.”

Mr Basil said the proposed road would run up to and cross the Buang Bridge on to Bulolo and would be rescoped from single lane to double lane to cater for the increased traffic because of the boom in mining and exploration.

 

InterOil begins latest exploration phase

PORT MORESBY: InterOil has begun the latest phase of its Gulf Province exploration program.

Drilling at a new site called Antelope-1 commenced Wednesday this week.

The rig, support equipment and buildings have been air lifted into the area during the past month.

The site is now fully operational as a drilling project to appraise the Antelope Field. .

A team of about a hundred personnel including drilling specialists and geologists will carry out the complex drilling operation in the weeks ahead.

It is intended the drill bore will penetrate more than two thousand metres beneath the earth’s surface.

Antelope-1 is located just two-and-a-half kilometres from the successful Elk-4 discovery well where a major gas strike was made three months ago.

During tests, Elk-4 returned a gas flow rate of 105-million cubic feet per day, the largest gas flow rate of all time in Papua New Guinea.

InterOil President Bill Jasper says the company also has high hopes for Antelope-1.

“We believe the Elk and the Antelope structures form part of the same subterranean gas reservoir”. 

“Based on recent testing we believe the overall structure to be 15 kilometres long, five kilometres wide and more than 600 metres in thickness”, he said.

“So far the test results on Elk-4 have been in line with our high expectations.”

“We believe our discovery is one of significant potential”, Mr. Jasper said.

Mr. Jasper said recent appraisals provided “a strong positive” for InterOil’s planned Liquid Niugini Gas Project.

The proposed multi billion Kina construction project would be one of the largest investments ever made in Papua New Guinea.

The plans involve the construction of a new LNG processing plant on land adjacent InterOil’s Port Moresby refinery and a pipeline to transport the gas from the Gulf Province.

For further in formation please contact

Susuve Laumaea

Senior Manager Media Relations InterOil Corporation

Ph: 321 7040

Mobile: + (675) 684 5168

Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com  

 

 

Wonderful Mumeng in Bulolo District, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

Above are pictures of beautiful and scenic Mumeng Local Level Government (LLG) area in Bulololo District, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

The pictures were taken during my visit there last week.

It certainly is one of the scenic and picturesque areas of Papua New Guinea which is currently a hive of activity with all the mining projects there.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil is doing a lot to bring about development to his electorate and you can see the difference everywhere you go.

Goroka hospital goes one step further in e- health

Captions: 1. Dr Clement Malau officially opens the Goroka hospital’s business resource centre; 2.  Robert Schilt IT Manager, Dr Joseph Apa CEO and Dr Clement Malau

Goroka General Hospital has gone one step further in its e-health programme with the opening of its new business resource centre on Tuesday this week by Health Secretary Dr Clement Malau

This was a momentous occasion for hospital staff, management and the board and a unique opportunity for the hospital to share about its IT achievements over the past 18 months and also how an Open Source Software (OSS) approach can provide long term tangible benefits and savings to the national health system and other hospitals within Papua New Guinea.

The opening of the centre has been 12 months in the planning and finally it happened.

The Health Secretary, CEO’s from each of the Highlands hospitals, senior staff from the Health Department, AUSAID advisors and Goroka Hospital board and management were all present for the occasion.

Hospital chief executive officer Dr Joseph Apa told of how it had saved thousands of kina in computer software costs and should be an example to other hospitals in the country.

He said the decision by the hospital to adopt OSS over Proprietary Software (Microsoft) as part of its strategic direction had already led to considerable savings for the hospital.

“Open Source Operating Systems such as Linux Ubuntu are essentially immune to viruses,” Dr Apa said.

“The hospital has not had one virus incident in the last 12 months.

“What’s really ironic is that none of our Open Source PC’s and laptops actually runs any form of virus protection software.

“By going down the Open Source path we have essentially bypassed the prohibitive costs associated with licensed software such as Microsoft Office and Virus Protection.

“This in itself has saved Goroka General Hospital approximately K60, 000 in setup costs of our new IT Training Centre.

“We have now started the process of investigating Open Source options for an electronic patient records System, something that all hospitals around PNG are desperately needing,  and I am amazed at the rich collection of quality Health Information System (HIS) related applications currently available through the Open Source Community.

“The ultimate objective in introducing electronic information systems at Goroka General Hospital is to provide both management and staff with accurate and timely information that supports and enhances the delivery of an efficient health service to the public of the Eastern Highlands.

“This goal will only be achieved through the provision of efficient, reliable and integrated Health Information Systems that are cost effective.”

 Information Technology manager Robert Schilt emphasised the IT achievements at the hospital, many a first for a public hospital in PNG:

•           Deployment of 60 PC’s and laptops including a Local Area Network (first hospital in PNG);

•           Establishment of a business resource centre (first hospital in PNG);

•           Setting of a training room and course(s) with 100-plus staff trained (first hospital in PNG)

•           Monthly meetings of an IM&T Steering Committee (first hospital in PNG)

•           Hospital website and online health forum www.ggh.org.pg  (first hospital in PNG)

•           Access to the Hinari subscription (first hospital in PNG)

•           Development of an organisational Intranet (first hospital in PNG)

•           Recent media coverage (first hospital in PNG).

The IT team at Goroka General Hospital is more than happy to share their experiences with other PNG Hospitals about to embark upon a similar exercise and can be contacted on info@ggh.org.pg.

 

Beautiful Bulolo

Pictured are some pictures of Bulolo I took just last week.

The first one shows Bulolo MP Sam Basil standing at the  Mumeng Local Level Government (LLG) office at Mumeng along the main Wau-Bulolo Highway from Lae and the second shows Bulolo District Headquarters in the historic, famous and beautiful town of Bulolo.

It’s a great place and has some of the most-breathtaking scenery in Papua New Guinea.

Malum