Speech by Bulolo MP Sam Basil on the occassion of the official opening of Hidden Valley gold mine

His Excellency Grand Chief Sir Paulias Matane - Governor General of PNG; Hon. John Pundari, Minister for Mining; Hon. Benny Allen, Minister for Environment; Hon. Sasa Zibe, Minister for Health; Hon. Luther Wenge, Governor for Morobe; Rex Mauri and Peter Askai representing the landowners; Mr. Graham Briggs, Harmony CEO; Mr. Ian Smith, Newcrest CEO;and all stake holders here today to witness this historical event the opening of this seventh mine in operation the Hidden Valley Mine, partially owned and operated by Harmony Gold of South Africa and Newcrest of Australia a recent marriage of two mining giants now operating in this region.

As the Mining Minister Hon. John Pundari has said last night in Port Moresby, the Somare/Polye Government supports this project and other such projects in the country which we all support.

I commend the government’s effort through its agencies, which have successfully facilitated the Hidden Valley mining development to this stage.

The hardworking landowners’ executives represented through Rex Mauri, Peter Askai, Ben Joseph and others through their tireless efforts have also contributed to this success and I commend them for that.

This project is new in Morobe province but not new to Bulolo district, because Bulolo has its place in the early record-breaking history of gold mining and aviation industry.

Many people including early miners, explorers and the locals (often referred to as natives) lost their lives all because of the gold rush era.

The early Wau/Bulolo goldfields was a forerunner of large mining which eventually saw the development of Bougainville, Ok Tedi, Porgera, Kutubu, Lihir and other mines established.

Papua New Guinea gained its independence in 1975 while some companies in Wau such as New Guinea Gold (NGG) and others slowly packed up and left.

Wau became a ghost town while Bulolo was a little lucky enough to have sustained itself through the pine plantation operations of PNG Forest Products.

PNG Forest Products employs locals while keeping the banking and postal services operational, but on many occasions, the two towns are always forgotten by successive governments through lack of maintaining law order support.

Sadly this situation still confronts us today.

My district has committed K2million for rural police by purchasing seven police vehicles and recruitment of 70 community police officers.

The Morobe provincial government has committed K500, 000 for the Mumeng police barracks while the national government has committed K7m for the Wau police barracks, but this is still not enough.

While the good Minister is present here today, I would like to stress further that more attention is needed from the government in the law and order sector for Bulolo district. The investors, their shareholders and the locals in this region demand a safe and sound environment to live and work in.

I am sure the government is concerned too and must live up to its commitments to facilitate such investment.

The Kumalu River still remains an obstacle to this mine and other businesses operating in this region despite numerous attempts to push a K27m bypass project.

There have been proposals to attract Public Investment Programme (PIP) funding. Numerous attempts were made in the past three years but were always overlooked by the government.

I now would like to acknowledge all stakeholders for the success of this project.

I, however, would like to remind all that along the way of progressing, some situations have been created and must be addressed by all concerned stakeholders.

As Rex Mauri has said last night in Port Moresby, everyone's concerns must be properly addressed and I share that concern too.

 I do represent this electorate in Parliament and every one’s concern will eventually become my concern too.

During the early stripping stages of Hidden Valley project up until now sedimentation has been a problem affecting the Latep/Leklu, Middle Watut and the Lower Watut areas,  destroying gardens, fertile soil, covering up drinking waters sources, diminishing of aquatic lives from the rivers such as prawns, eels and fish. Flash floods washing away footbridges and parts of Watut and Latep bridges.

The community affairs duplicate district programmes and operate independently without partnership from the district and local level government programs.

Local and Morobean businesses (non-land owners) have been overlooked by the MMJV

for businesses spin off activities while land owner companies have been forced to participate with other JVs instead of venturing on their own as 100% owners.

The Bulolo district itself, aside from the LLGs, has been overlooked when the distribution of royalties were negotiated in the early stages of their negotiations.

This saw my district and the Morobe provincial government entering into a separate memorandum of agreement (MOA) outside the MMJV-Project MOA.

This MOA between the district and the MPG was recently breached by the Honourable Governor of Morobe Hon. Luther Wenge as the chairman of the provincial executive council.

This mutual trust and understanding that we have established through the MOA is now in question.

I urge the Honourable Governor to honour our commitments and respect my district as the host district of this very important project, and furthermore, this arrangement must be also captured in the 2012 MOA review for the good of all.

May I remind all stake holders here today that the affected communities, local wards, local level government and the district government must have all their genuine concerns attended to in one way or other.

In saying this, I commend this project in my district and thank both Harmony Gold and Newcrest for having faith in this region and look forward for your continued support locally.

We will also stand behind the project which will be one of the seven revenue-generating mine projects of this young nation of ours as stated by the Mining Minister last night which we will all work together and support.

We all can hope that the remaining years of this mine can enrich especially the land owners, who gave up their gardening and hunting grounds for the development of this mine.

We can also hope that Wau, Bulolo and Mumeng township can be also transformed from the proceeds of this mine’s revenue and the district must be also recognised as an important partner in this project aside from the provincial and the local level government.

Shooting with verbiage

From JAMES WANJIK

VISION 2050 junta had been dethroned in July 2010 leadership games in government.

Vision is a dream written in few words.

Leaders envision and people set goals.

Vision 2050 is a death trap we are led to accept without question.

Rallying people support of a vision requires charisma.

Blaming and challenging public servants will not win people. Neither will agreements and communiques.

So what does Vision 2050 entail?

It is clear no worthy leader has waved green leaf marking peace after war.

Telling people to merely accept as given that by 2050 PNG will be smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy Vision 2050 adherents are reactionaries.

Vision is about plotting the future based on past and present situation.

Had we been told the truth we would not have been lied to, to accept Vision 2050.

Truth is PNG has not matched economic development underpinned by minerals with human development.

Vision 2050 has as its base potential proceeds from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) prospect.

LNG prospect was a mad rush as we know.

ExxonMobil did not want to follow our law so our laws were amended to suit ExxonMobil.

By linking Vision 2050 to the LNG prospect PNG is mortgaged to ExxonMobil.

Vision 2050 is totally a bad sin and a crime against our pride as a nation. It is verbiage with no truth.

May all good people rally against Vision 2050.

Waigani is lost with Vision 2050

By JAMES WANJIK

THE EDITORIAL "Vision 2050: All hands on deck" (Sunday Chronicle, Sunday, October 3, 2010 p. 14) was not an issue at all.

Vision 2050 is driven from the Prime Minister's Department.

It is driven by consultants and advisers who did little to nothing as Waigani bureaucrats.

National Planning has not been driving Vision 2050. So why point fingers at bystanders?

Ignoring truth will not help PNG.

Vision 2050 was a power tool for a particular leader.

Now that we have no leader owning Vision 2050 it will die a natural death.

Please stop the blame game on Vision 2050.

Pictures of Hidden Valley gold mine opening on Thursday, Sept 30, 2010

Airlines PNG charter with VIPs and guests leaving for Bulolo.-Pictures courtesy of Bulolo MP SAM BASIL

Nakuwi landowner chairman Rex Mauri during flight from Port Moresby to Bulolo

Helicopters lining up to ferry VIPs and guests from Bulolo airport to Hidden Valley

Road to Hidden Valley

Approaching Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley aerial view

Another aerial view of Hidden Valley

Arrivals at Hidden Valley

More arrivals

Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Band plays at Hidden Valley

Bulolo MP Sam Basil

Wau businessman Tony Flyn and Newcrest public affairs regional executive

Grace Memorial High School students singing PNG national anthem

Governor General Sir Paulias Matane gives his official address

Plaque commemorating the opening

Gold bar on display

Bulolo MP Sam Basil surrounded by relatives working at Hidden Valley

Visitors touring the accomodation area

Landowner leader Ben Joseph in the mess area

Conveyor route at Hidden Valley

Visitors including Governor General Sir Paulias Matane have a bird's eye of the mine from the lookout

Wau rural local level government president John Yawa and acting Bulolo district administrator Tae Gwambelek

APEC Ministers target growth of SMEs

Issued by the 17^TH APEC Small and Medium Enterprises ministerial meeting

 

Gifu, Japan, 3 October, 2010 – In a joint statement issued today, APEC ministers responsible for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) target the challenges of fostering long-term growth following the global economic crisis.

 Following two-days of discussions, ministers released the statement containing recommendations for leaders to guide the development of policy for SMEs in their respective economies.

 Ministers considered the impact of the global financial crisis on SMEs and the emergency stimulus responses by APEC member economies, concluding that “overall, economic growth of SMEs in the APEC region is back on track”.

 The statement discussed development of SMEs over the next few years and noted that looking forward to 2020, efforts to enhance development should focus on improving their access to global markets and increasing their participation in high-growth sectors, such as in the green, medical and healthcare industries.

 Ministers said that efforts could include the following and agreed to call the first three efforts the “Gifu Initiative”:

·        Supporting SMEs to take advantage of each locality’s domestic and regional resources to develop high value-added products, and to sell to the global marketplace;

·        Promoting exhibitions and trade shows in the region that are open to the Asia-Pacific region’s SMEs;

·        Supporting SMEs to expand and strengthen networking by launching international internship and exchange programmes;

·        Strengthening assistance for human resources development, innovation, business change, productivity improvement, and entrepreneurship; and

·        Developing a coordinated approach between SME- and related agencies to implement measures aimed at improving access to finance, capability building and the legal system.

 

“We, the Small and Medium Enterprises ministers, aim to generate dynamic and diverse SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region, from micro to mid-sized enterprises, in industries that support the basics of everyday life through to those developing and employing the most advanced technologies,” the statement said.

 The statement is a result of the 17^th APEC small and medium enterprises ministerial meeting in Gifu, Japan which was held under the theme ‘Strategy for Reinvigorating Economic Growth with Dual Engine: SME and Asia-Pacific Economy’.

 Ministers recognised that continuing to support the development of SMEs was an important component of APEC’s new growth strategy, which will be formulated by leaders in Yokohama in November.

 The strategy supports “high quality growth” including the attribute of inclusiveness, which aims to spread the benefits to wider sections of the community, and innovation.

Continuing to enhance SMEs is therefore crucial for APEC, given that they account for around 90% of all businesses in the Asia-Pacific region and employ as much as 60 percent of its work force.

 

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To view the statement, go to: http://www.apec.org/apec/ministerial_statements/sectoral_ministerial/small___medium_enterprises/2010_small_and_medium.html

For more information, contact Trudy Harris (65) 98983710 or th@apec.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

InterOil eyes exclusively Gulf operations

Lamaika youth dancers from Mei'i and Uaripi villages of Tairuma Bay, Kerema, Gulf
Province, performing at the opening of InterOil's Kerema office last Thursday

INTEROIL Corporation is moving to make final decision on location of its condensate stripping plant and its liquefied natural gas facility in Gulf Province.

Gulf governor Havila Kavo gave the strongest indication yet, last Thursday, of InterOil’s intention to operate exclusively from Gulf province without pulling a liquid gas carrier pipeline all the way from Gulf to InterOil’s Napa Napa facility inside Port Moresby harbour.

 The indication was that InterOil was now more committed to developing, processing and marketing the condensate and liquified natural gas products directly from Gulf Province, he said.

Governor Kavo said he had been briefed by the company of its intentions.

He was speaking at a public celebration of the formal opening of InterOil’s Gulf province office.

InterOil's new Kerema office

Rundown Kerema town became a hive of colourful activity last Thursday as townsfolk and nearby villagers celebrated the event hailed as a show of sincerity by InterOil of its development plans.

Governor Kavo used the occasion to indicate that he was pleased InterOil was moving to develop its gas condensate stripping plant (CSP) and its liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility exclusively in Gulf province.

Governor Kavo said he was encouraged by InterOil’s cautionary approach to ensuring that issues pertaining to project impacted and affected area landowners were exhaustively and amicably dealt with as matters of priority to ensure harmonious development of the CSP and LNG facility.

InterOil’s community affairs general manager Geoff Hiatt said the company was seriously looking at its Gulf province project development options and a definite announcement will be made in the coming weeks of how the company will position its development options.

InterOil community affairs general manager Geoff Hiatt and Governor Havila Kavo cutting the ribbon to open InterOil’s Kerema office last Thursday

InterOil’s media and public affairs manager Susuve Laumaea described the office opening as symbolic of InterOil’s commitment to establish the company as “long haul” partner in driving Gulf province’s overall socio-economic development initially on the back of the company’s vast Elk and Antelope natural gas discoveries. Delivering a message on behalf of the company’s top management Mr Laumaea said InterOil was committed to “walking hand-in-hand” with the government and people of Gulf in a spirit of goodwill, unity and cooperation.

He said it was the company’s desire to use the Elk and Antelope prospects as catalyst to gainfully drive the province’s long time development.

Senior InterOil officials, Department of Petroleum and Energy representatives, government gas liaison officers and Gulf governor Havila Kavo joined Gulf province administration officials, public servants, town residents and nearby Karaeta, Siviri, Mei’I, Uaripi, Petoe and Luritera villagers to celebrate the event.

The InterOil team from left: Ray Weber, Fred Airi, Geoff Hiatt, Maurice Peremai and Susuve Laumaea outside the newly opened InterOil office in Kerema last Thursday

Public servants challenged to implement Vision 2050

By JOHN SAMAR

Acting Prime Minister Don Polye has challenged senior public servants to implement the Papua New Guinea Vision 2050. 

Mr Polye (centre) flanked by acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc (left)

He was addressing heads of departments and provincial administrators at a two-day meeting held at the Institute of Public Administration in Port Moresby on Wednesday Sept 29, 2010.

The meeting was held to discuss ways in which all departments and provincial governments can work together to align their national and provincial development plans to the PNG Vision 2050 Vision.

The PNG Vision 2050 wants to make PNG become a smart, wise, fair, healthy, and happy society by 2050.

To be able to reach these goals, PNG has to introduce universal basic education, increase its literacy rates, reduce deaths from TB and HIV AIDS, empower small PNG businessmen and women, and improve delivery of basic services such as health, education, banking, transport, communications and other services to the 89 districts throughout the country.

“The Papua New Guineans of tomorrow cannot do the job we have been given to do for them today for a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society by 2050,” Polye said.

 “Our generation’s welfare, my friends, is squarely in our hands, and we must take on the challenge and do what we have to do like we have never done before.”

Polye told the senior public servants that they should critically analyse and translate the meaning of Vision 2050 so that it has an impact on the lives of ordinary people in the rural villages of PNG.

Polye said once the senior public servants understood the needs of the ordinary villager, then they could produce appropriate plans to provide priority projects such as schools, aid posts, and small businesses to provide income for the rural villagers.

The acting Prime Minister said people in the rural areas needed roads and bridges to connect them to market places, and also need protection from criminals and natural disasters.

“However,” Polye said, “when it comes to what needs to be done first, and how , we should partner with them to implement their wishes , all of us need to sit down, and listen to them.

“In that regard, go out and sell Vision 2050, and make them own it as much as you do.”

Polye emphasised that senior public servants should use the proven performance management system put in place by the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government to ensure that implementation was effectively undertaken and monitored.

He called on senior public servants to combine their efforts with other agencies through a public-private partnership to benefit local communities resulting in synergistic benefits for everyone.

Addressing the same conference, acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc called on the departmental heads and provincial administrators to cooperate in aligning their development plans with Vision 2050.

He told the senior officers that without effective collaboration and consultation between all central agencies of government, efforts to co-ordinate and monitor implementation would not be achieved.

Zurenuoc encouraged all senior public servants to work together in unity in “improving the delivery of services to the people of Papua New Guinea, especially to those who live in our rural communities”.

The Central provincial government and the Department of Health briefed the meeting on how their respective organisations had aligned their development plans with PNG Vision 2050.

Central provincial administrator Raphael Yipmaramba told the meeting that his province had adopted the “bottom up” planning approach from the ward level to the provincial level and national level, while the financial resources were planned to flow “from top down”.

 Secretary for Health Dr. Clement Malau told the conference that his department was accountable to the 6.5 million stakeholders of PNG.

He added that his department also brought in experienced people from the provinces to assist in planning its corporate plan.

He said for the health plan to succeed, his department ensured that stakeholders took ownership, consulted widely, and also created a communications strategy to sell the plan to make sure “Health is everybody’s business”.

Dr Malau stressed that the Health Department’s plan also took a “bottom up” approach where all districts and provincial governments worked with the national government in drafting the10-year national health plan that was launched in Port Moresby last month.

The two-day meeting ended on Thursday, Sept 30, 2010.

A draft agreement called the ‘Waigani Conference Accord’ is being prepared by the secretariat of the PNG Vision 2050 development centre and will signed by the departmental heads and provincial administrators once it is completed.

People smuggling discussed at Port Moresby meeting

International guests and members from the Papua New Guinea government and non-government sector gathered at the Workshop on People Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons Bill at the Hideaway Hotel on Wednesday, Sept 29, 2010.

Hosted by the Department of Justice & Attorney General (DJAG) in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the support of PNG Immigration & Citizenship Service (PNGICS), the workshop discussed the new draft bill to amend the Criminal Code to criminalise people smuggling and trafficking in persons.

The bill is the result of cooperative efforts made by members for DJAG, PNGICS and IOM, as well as the reflection of comments received by the agencies members of

the anti-trafficking committee.

 The draft bill was presented at the workshop where participants contributed many constructive comments on the bill highlighting key areas of concern.

In his welcoming remarks, IOM chief of mission in Port Moresby Giuseppe

Crocetti noted that “people smuggling and trafficking in persons are issues which are complex and transnational” and stressed the “urgent need in PNG for this groundbreaking Bill to be passed”.

The keynote speech was given by the Minister of Justice& Attorney General, Ano Pala and opening remarks were given by Joseph Nobetau, acting chief migration officer of PNGICS.

The challenges in monitoring and managing movement across PNG’s land and sea borders with lack of resources and funding, were highlighted through presentations by representatives from the border provinces: Paul Nengai, executive officer of Sandaun provincial government;  Patrick Koles, deputy administrator (operations), Autonomous Bougainville Government;  and Willie Kokoba, deputy administrator (policy) of Fly River provincial government.

International and Pacific regional responses to people smuggling and trafficking were demonstrated in presentations given by international guests Reginald Sanday, head of secretariat of the Pacific Immigration Directors’ Conference and Nemani Vuniwaqa, director of immigration for the Fiji Islands.

The launch of a two-year counter-trafficking programme funded by the United States government was announced at the workshop by Paul Berg, deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of the United States of America in PNG.

The programme will be implemented by the IOM in partnership with DJAG and with the support of ICS and other relevant government and non-government counterparts.

This project holds the primary goal of supporting the efforts of the PNG government to prosecute traffickers and protect victims of trafficking through training, data collection, and awareness campaign, both at the central and provincial levels, in the areas of:

• Criminalisation and prosecution;
•  Legislation and policy;
• Protection; and
• Prevention.

Hidden Valley gold mine officially commisioned

MMJV seeks to invest K1.25b over 10 years

MOROBE Mining Joint Venture (MMJV), the operator of the newly commissioned Hidden Valley (HV) gold mine in the Wau-Bulolo district in the Morobe, will invest a total of K1.25 billion over a 10-year period, The National reports.

The outlay will go partly to wages and salaries (K800 million), royalty payments (K200 million) and revenue for the provincial and national government (K250 million).

The Hidden Valley mine is projected to produce an estimated 2.9 million ounces of gold.

The mine was officially commissioned on Wednesday night by Governor General Sir Paulias Matane at a ceremony which also marked its opening.

The new gold project is a joint venture between South African miner Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining Ltd, the largest gold miner in Asia-Pacific.

Harmony chief executive officer Graham Briggs told JV partners, government ministers, shareholders, landowner representatives and the media that MMJV was committed to further exploration and investment in the country particularly Morobe, which, in earlier times, was the source of most PNG’s gold production.

Briggs said PNG remained highly-prospective in modern mining era while recent exploration increased the prospect of a mining development at Wafi/Golpu also in Morobe.

“The mine has introduced and will continue to introduce innovation, quality mining technology and expertise,” Briggs said.

“A 4.5km overland ore conveyor is the most visible symbol of this innovative technology enabling separate ore bodies to be economically delivered to the processing mill.

“Extensive use of landowners and local business development contracts is already spreading economic benefits to the Wau/Bulolo region and elsewhere in the province,” Briggs said.

LNG project to be targetted in 2012 elections

By PATRICK TALU

 

THE 2012 national general elections will be riddled with violence in the Southern Highlands, a regional police commander has warned, The National reports.

Gulf provincial police chief Snr Insp Reuben Giusu has warned his superiors in Port Moresby that there is a strong arms build-up in the province.

Giusu reaffirmed an earlier election-related report that violence would also sabotage the multi-billion kina PNG LNG project.

Part of his intelligence security brief, provided to the PNG liquefied natural gas project operator Esso Highlands Ltd, the police headquarters and the National Intelligence Organisation after his assessment on security situation in Gulf, bordering Southern Highlands, said: “My assumption is that from the past experience in the national election, there is a very high possibility of violence during the election in SHP.

“The use of firearms and explosives in tribal fights will increase because people have excess to such weapons.

 “I was actively involved in the Koroba-Lake Kopiago and Tari-Pori elections in 2002 when armed violence resulted in fresh election in 2003.”

Yesterday, it was claimed that the destruction of Curtain Clough Joint Venture (CCJV) heavy machineries and attack on its workers last week by disgruntled people from Kikori villages had been caused by the government’s delay in paying the appropriate business development grants.

Landowners had blamed the Department of Commerce for the delay.

They had also issued a 14-day ultimatum in a petition to Esso Highlands Ltd to address two main concerns.

They wanted the developer to give their two umbrella companies contracts for construction work and to immediately pay them their business development grants.

They warned that a no-response would mean a stop-work on segment seven of the LNG project.

 

Web-based SMS comes to town

A NEW website will be launched to revolutionise the way SMS text messaging will be delivered in PNG for businesses and individuals alike, The National reports.

The company website, called www.kundulink.com.au  will allow users who are registered on the site to send individual or bulk messages to any mobile telephone in PNG or anywhere else in the world within seconds from the website at a fraction of the time and cost of a voice call.

This will enable businesses and individuals alike to save time – and costs – that will have been spent punching in characters in their mobile phones to send text messages to customers, clients or friends.

When launched, Kundu Link will be the first and only web-based SMS service in PNG.

The website’s homepage declared that Kundu Link was designed to improve the productivity and mobility of businesses in the country by improving the way they communicate with their staff, customers and clients.

It will also give businesses the freedom to engage in communications that are highly personal, immediate and have a high reach at just a fraction of the time and cost spent on voice communications.

“Businesses are seeking simplified communication solutions to remain competitive in an increasingly mobile and technologically advancing world,” the website’s homepage stated.

“Kundu Link enables your business to send individual or bulk messages within seconds from your desk at a fraction of the time and cost of a voice call.

“With a large percentage of business telephone communications costs being landline to mobile phone charges, SMS is the perfect way to dramatically reduce your telecommunications costs.”

And, all you have to do is visit the website, register and start sending SMS from your computer.

Web-based SMS has been a big hit with individuals and major businesses in Australia and the rest of the world for many years, but this would be the first time it is made available to Papua New Guineans.

“Big businesses in Australia that have used web-based SMS to improve their business and business communications include Coca-Cola, Quantas, chocolate maker Cadbury, technology company Hewlett Packard and many others,” the company website stated.

 

 

Gulf leaders give 14-day ultimatum

By WALLACE KIALA

KIKORI landowners and the West Kikori local level government in Gulf have petitioned Esso Highlands Ltd to engage their umbrella company in contract work and to immediately release all business development grants earmarked under segment seven of the LNG project, The National reports.

In their petition, addressed to Esso

Highlands’ Peter Graham, the landowners stated that the company’s failure to do so would result in a stop-work of construction activities within the Kaiam ferry crossing to the Omati landfall.

They have given the company 14 days to respond to their demands.

In their two-point petition, the landowners wanted Esso Highlands to immediately:

• Engage Greenfield Resources Investment Ltd in contract works with the LNG pipeline construction; and
• Release all business development grants, earmarked under segment seven of the LNG project, to Greenfield Resources Investment Ltd.

Meanwhile, Kikori Oil Pipeline Landowners Association (KOPLA) chairman Bomsy Boviro yesterday claimed that the destruction caused to Curtain Clough Joint Venture (CCJV) heavy machineries and the attack on its workers last week was due to the government’s delay in paying landowners their business development grants.

He said although the Department of Petroleum and Energy had allocated funds, the facilitating government agency, Department of Commerce, had not release of the payments.

“With the full construction of the LNG project set to begin next month, there is a lot of uncertainty causing anxiety among the people; the people want to get their business activities off the ground,” Boviro said.

Police, in the meantime, are still looking for the suspects involved in torching CCJV’s truck and machineries.

Gulf provincial police commander Snr Insp Reuben Giusu said although no arrests had been made, the situation on the ground had been contained.

Finschhafen fight claims three

FIERCE gun fighting in Finschhafen early yesterday morning left at least three men dead, The National reports.

The first two from the coastal village of Kwalansam were killed by the hinterland Gaweng Labu.

In retaliation, the Kwalansam villages later in the day rallied and attacked Gaweng Labu and razed several homes.

Police source did not identify the site of the killings but said the deaths were caused by high- powered guns.

All three dead are in the morgue at the Lutheran church-run Braun Hospital.

The source also said there were reports of at least five other deaths before yesterday.

The source said both villagers were using high-powered guns, adding that police going into the area yesterday were warned to take “extraordinary precautions”.

The fighting was said to have started after independence over a land ownership issue.

The source said there had been intermittent clashes in the past two weeks with unconfirmed reports of deaths.

The source said more than 3,000 people from the neighbouring coastal villages of Kasanga and Ngasingalatuc and Bugem had stopped going to their gardens for fear of attacks. 

Residents at the district headquarters of Gagidu said the town was tense.

They warned that the fighting could seriously affect the start of classes at the neighbouring Dregerhafen Technical Secondary School, which will be starting its Grade 10 examinations next Tuesday.

Coffee growers and coffee dreamers- an industry governed by complacency

By JOHN FOWKE
 

John Fowke

The arrival of coffee into the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where it is the only major source of cash to a fast-expanding rural population, coincided with the arrival of roads, airstrips, Christian missions and the “gavman”.
Sharp, steel cutting-edges, the like of which had never been seen; the concept of saws, hammers and nails rather than bush-rope for building; matches, mirrors and copious quantities of sea-salt as opposed to laboriously-produced salts of potassium derived from ashes and from isolated up-wellings of mineralised mud were magic.
The products of some supernatural place in the sky where white people came from.
Soon, though, the Highlanders, like their coastal cousins long before them, accepted the truth; the reality that all these marvellous things were made by the hands of people like themselves.
 The word of Christ and the new right to walk feely and without hindrance from enemies upon the “rot bilong gavman” were new marvels, also.
And as time passed, they became convinced in large numbers that what the white “didiman” said was true.
That by planting the seeds from the small, red fruit call “kofi”, they might gain a source of the “moni” which was the preferred medium of exchange at the few trade-stores which had opened here and there.
In this way a huge social revolution, the like of which has scarce occurred so dramatically and in such a short period of time anywhere in the world swept the Highlands.
A social revolution, indeed a turning-point in PNG history- nothing since has provided so much stimulation, so much excitement, nor launched so much novel and productive activity.
Today, however, coffee is just something that’s always been there.
Young people, especially those living in peri-urban and highway-side villages know and care little for coffee.
The growers are mostly middle-aged subsistence farmers, who inherited their coffee from a generation now gone.
They are not small businessmen.
Not businessmen who worry about their cash-position and the condition of their fields or their livestock, like dairy-farmers or vegetable-farmers do in other lands where farming is industrialised.
Coffee has an importance, alongside and not superior to their crops of sweet-potato, taro, banana and kumu, and their pigs and chickens.
It is part of a complex system, an inherited system of living which modernity is pressing upon in many ways.
And today PNG’s national coffee-tree population is to a large extent aged and worn out- more than ready for retirement.
In other words, due for replacement by new young, vigorous plants which will do justice to the valuable land upon which they grow and bear fruit.
But nowhere is their any sign that growers, or anyone else associated with PNG’s second-largest agricultural money-earner is awake to the approaching death of what some have called “the money-tree industry”.
 Across the Highlands and the other minor coffee-growing districts something in the order of 160 million- yes, that’s right, 160 million- senile, unproductive coffee trees continue to occupy good land.
This is an emergency situation – one with serious implications as far as social order, health and wellbeing in the Highlands is concerned- and it is a situation which is not recognised, and for which well-based planning is not on the table.
The “think big” politically-driven policies over many years have shown no statistically-measurable result.
Here funds have been wasted on badly-managed central nurseries and in ventures like last year’s “coffee renovation project”.
 Here a rumoured K3 million was spent in buying tools from small, local hardware shops and distributing these to growers with little accountability and no apparent result.
There has been no recognition, in spite of frequent reminders by this writer and others with a genuine interest in the industry, that a massive grower-initiated replanting programme is absolutely essential to the continued prosperity of PNG’s valuable coffee industry.
 No recognition; no mention in the grandiose, “Golden Future” projects and targets which are announced regularly as harbingers of coming PNG-wide wellbeing.  
During the coming 20 years, the present-day middle-aged generation of landowners will pass on, together with their knowledge of coffee, and of all the traditional boundaries and customary usufructary rights to land now occupied by coffee and other permanent tree-crops.
No one is thinking about this so far as is known.
It is a looming social calamity.
All the talk about land registration is so much nonsense until detailed mapping of customarily-recognised landholdings and usufructary rights to bushland, hunting and fishing places, old communally-established coconut groves planted in the 1930s, and standing bush food and fruit trees is accomplished.
The situation which may prevail once the generation which still preserves all this knowledge passes is almost beyond imagining.
 Our extension-services and several generously-funded coffee related aid projects have always treated the coffee-growers as if they were little professional farmers, or persons ready to become such.
They have not taken a more thoughtful, sociology-based / traditional economy-based approach, one in which both the practice and the logic of the subsistence economy and the imperatives which drive it are considered.
 Advisory input has always been a westernised, we-know-best approach.
One where people who have spent years gaining degrees in modern agro-technology attempt to intermesh this theoretical knowledge with systems, thoughts and imperatives which have grown and been practiced successfully in PNG for the past 8, 000 years.   As for the fast-vanishing managed plantation sector, once hailed as the flagship of the coffee industry, this is faced with the effect of many years of widespread mis-management and impossibly high costs in every direction, besides an aging and generally poor treestock.
Producing around 6% of today’s export volume and buying and blending in a further 6% from surrounding village growers, this sector with very few exceptions is on its last legs.
One of the exceptions is the Warawou Plantation of Max Kumbamong, a life-long coffee man of Mt. Hagen.
Kumbamong, who began his career with Angco Development some 25 years ago, bought this abandoned tea-plantation which had literally turned into a jungle.
Already a successful coffee-trader with his own export company, Max has applied common-sense allied with practical, realistic farm practices to renovate more than 20 hectares of old coffee and bring in a further 80 hectares of new trees planted on cleared tealand.
Having restored tea-production over part of his remaining land, and selling the leaf together with bananas which are grown as shade over the newly-planted areas, Max can show all the planners and agricultural experts much which practical experience would have taught them if they had been interested and energetic enough to want to learn.
Aside from the capital purchase, his establishment costs are covered by the sale of tea-leaf and bananas, and rice which he is also growing.
 So much for all those who, like hungry dogs, howl for government grants and loans to help them become coffee kings.
 Coffee dreamers, all!
Very simply, the need is for realistic, keen, idealistic “coffee-evangelists” to carry their blanket, pillow, and a small supply of coffee, sugar and biscuits with them on friendly overnight visits to villagers where they ask for overnight accommodation and spread the replanting gospel around the fire, at night, when people are open and ready to talk and to consider ideas.
Seed might be distributed at the same time, but this writer is not aware of any large quantity of improved variety seed in existence in PNG at present.
Better then that however, being much more expedient and easier and cheaper, growers might be shown how to select and grow new plants using self-sown seedlings from below their own trees.
After all, PNG’s existing coffee, though variable because of the mixed practices of 400,000 growers and far too many badly-managed and uneconomic little factories, is intrinsically, as good as coffee gets, anywhere in the world.

Say it with orchids

 The Orchid Spectacular will be held this weekend, The National reports.
The show will see orchid growers and other florists flock to the Sir Rabbie Namaliu Orchid Gardens at the National Parliament grounds on Saturday and Sunday. 
The official opening will be on Friday evening. 

Workers were busy yesterday to get everything ready for the show with PNG Gardener Justin Tkatchenko using a hose to make sure the orchids are at their best before the weekend. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA

NDB to engage in retail banking

GOVERNMENT-owned National Development Bank (NDB) is going to acquire a retail banking licence to expand its operations, The National reports.   

This was revealed on Monday by Minister for Finance and Treasury Peter O’Neill to the bank’s stakeholders in Port Moresby.

O’Neill said with the granting of the licence, NDB would be in a better position to provide banking services to rural communities.

“The government has rehabilitated NDB so it can be positioned to obtaining a ‘retail banking licence’ so that millions of our people in the rural communities who remained unbanked can have access to banking and financial services,” he said.

He said the bank had made a strong financial come back from a period of insolvency in 2004 and is now in a better position to expand its services to the public.

O’Neill said the improvement in the balance sheet position of NDB from a net asset of K15 million in 2004 to more than K160 million this year was a positive sign for the bank and its clients.

Bank managing director Richard Maru said once the retail banking licence had been  obtained, the bank would start collecting deposits from the public.

NDB chairman William Lamur also echoed this sentiment, saying the bank “has leaped from great debts and is now in a better position serve its clients”.

He said the next aim of the bank was to operate on its own with little or no help from the state.