National Research Institute's new infrastructure celebrates Port Moresby's building boom

The building boom in Port Moresby will be epitomised in Port Moresby on Thursday this week when the National Research Institute celebrates the official opening of the AusAID-funded, Australia-PNG Incentive Fund Infrastructure Development Programme (see pictures above). 

The infrastructure programme, which attracted funding of some K6.2 million, has boosted the Institute’s status to become the leading public policy research authority in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands Region concerning policy-oriented issues and development trends.

“The Australia-PNG Incentive Fund Program is an historic milestone in infrastructure development for the Institute, since the opening of the original New Guinea Research Unit of the Australian National University in September 1968,” said NRI director Dr Thomas Webster,

“Those original buildings have been renovated as part of this development programme.

“It was a very difficult process obtaining approval for our project, as project funding submissions are very competitive, and many procedural and financial requirements and conditions had to be met.  

“As the infrastructure development now testifies, the institute was successful in its submission — which was the final approved project under AusAID’s current APNGIF program.”

The program comprises the following components:

•           A 280-seat conference centre, which incorporates a cafeteria and a bookshop;

•           A new administration building;

•           A new publications production centre, library extension, and publishing and IT   building;

•           Housing for visiting research fellows;

•           Renovated offices for NRI’s four research Divisions — Economics, Education, Political and Legal Studies, and Social and Environmental Studies;

•           Renovated existing library;

•           Renovated office-block for visiting researchers; and

•           Renovated Waigani Lodge, which is NRI’s eight-room, self-contained motel-type          units.

“The infrastructure has given the National Research Institute and its staff a morale boost as it has reorganised its research activities to provide greater public policy support to the government’s development initiatives, as set down in the Medium Term Development Strategy,” Dr Webster said. 

He expressed his gratitude to the following people and organisations for their input and dedication in making the infrastructure program a reality:

•           AusAID through the Australia-PNG Incentive Fund for approving and facilitating the project;

•           Paul Constable and his APNGIF team for their ongoing input and support;

•           Stanley Bala, the principal of Heduru Contractor Ltd, his supervisors and staff;

•           John Terence, the principal of Terence Kara Architects;

•           Ronald Napatalai, who was the project engineer;

•           The subcontractors and suppliers who provided the building materials and other services;

•           Logo Lotu, the programme manager, and his assistant, Ezekiel Brown; and

•           The NRI Project Management Team, who did the initial ground work leading up to the construction phase, and for their constant input during the construction of the various components of the infrastructure programme.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea goes online

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea now has the opportunity to evangelise through the Internet.

This follows the launch of the church’s website - http://www.elcpng.org.pg/ - last week which, among other things, will keep its members informed of activities within the ELCPNG.

The website contains details of the church’s history, events, education, health and other church-related activities and development programmes.

It was launched by acting Head Bishop Rev Zau Rapa last week.

“The website will introduce you to who we are, what we believe as a Christian denomination in PNG, and our ministries that puts out faith in action,” according to the home page.

“The ELC-PNG has a membership of over 1.2 million all throughout Papua New Guinea.

“This is approximately 20% of the total five million population of the country.

“The ELC-PNG anniversary day is celebrated on the 12th of July every year.

“This is the date when the pioneer missionary Rev Johannes Flierl first started his mission as a Lutheran pastor to reach to the people of Papua New Guinea in 1886

“Last year 2008, the Lutherans in PNG celebrated its 122 years of establishment.

“The official logo of the ELC-PNG shown above bears the hand of white man handing over the cross to a black man, the background image is the map of Papua New Guinea, and they are inside Luther's Rose.

“With Jesus Christ as the supreme head of ELC-PNG, we have three officials that look after and administer His work here: the Head Bishop, Assistant Bishop and General Secretary.

“ELC-PNG has 17 districts and seven departments.

“Districts are the regional settings of the Church throughout PNG whilst the department ministers the works that ELC-PNG serves God by providing to the people.”

 

A spectacular new palm species from the Sandaun povince, Papua New Guinea

Caption: The author Roy Banka with the new palm species discovered - longispadix Banka & Barfod sp.nov. – from Sandaun province

 

By ROY BANKA

 

NEW Guinea is one of the world’s greatest palm diversity hotspots with around 270 species, and the island is home to some of the most beautiful palms that thrive in the pristine and untouched rainforests.

Many of these palm species have great economic importance to rural communities in Papua New Guinea such as the coconut, betel nuts and other species which have great ornamental potential both within the country and internationally.

Although many New Guinea palm species are known scientifically, most species remain poorly known, as there is a lack of indigenous plant taxonomists and botanists who are working on documenting this great palm diversity that the island has.

The Palms of New Guinea Project (PONG) involves scientists from six different countries (United Kingdom, United States of America, Denmark, Australia, Indonesia and PNG), who have come together to explore and document this diverse palm flora of New Guinea, resulting in a number of new species being discovered and described in the past five to six years - one of such a discovery is presented here.

In 1999, the late Joseph Wiakabu from PNG Forest Research Institute (PNGFRI) and John Worimbangu from the Momase Area Office of the National Forest Service in Lae, Morobe province,  collected for the first time, an aberrant species of a Licuala around Green River in the Amanab area of the Sandaun province.

The specimen was presented to us at the Lae Herbarium and the collectors mentioned to us that it had a very long inflorescence that reached the forest floor.

From the height of the palm indicated on the label we deduced that the inflorescence was at least 4m long – the longest ever recorded of the genus!!!

 We checked with the measurements for the inflorescence length with experts in this group and discovered that this inflorescence length is much longer than the Licuala’s from Borneo, which is another centre of palm species diversity in the world – so we were so excited to go out and see for ourselves.

During one of our field campaigns organised within the framework of the PONG project we recollected the species along the banks of the Pual River near Vanimo again in the Sandaun province.

We described the species for the first time and named it Licuala longispadix Banka & Barfod sp.nov., which simply means the species Licuala with a very long inflorescence (spadix) and is named by Banka and Barfod and is in fact a new species (sp.nov. in Latin for “species nova” or “new species”).

The species is known from only two known localities in the Sandaun province where it is rare locally in lowland forest on alluvial plains dominated by species Intsia and Pometia.

This species of palm has a conservation status rating of “High Concern” as it has been recorded from only two localities in the Sandaun province, and from the type locality along the Pual River a careful search within a 100 m radius revealed only one individualand no regeneration, so the species has to be protected especially during any kind of forest clearance so that whatever population of the species in the area can be protected.

 

GPS used in teak breeding in Papua New Guinea

Captions: 1. Kuriva seed trees 2. PIP Project 2008 3. PIP Project 2008
TECTONA grandis or teak is one of the world’s premium timbers and fetches a very high price selling compared to other premium tree species such as kwila and taun.
The National Forest Service (NFS) has plans to establish additional major lowland teak plantations in the not-too-distant future.
Teak is not indigenous to Papua New Guinea but was introduced as early as the late 1800’s from South East Asia.
Teak from India is now known to be the best in the world, but to obtain seeds at present is difficult.
One of the scientific officers at PNG Forest Research Institute Gedisa Jeffery said during a site visit that  the NFS faced a serious threat domestically of vandalism, fire and illegal felling of candidate seed tree that could result in the gradual reduction of the genetic base of teak in PNG.
Mr Jeffery said that previous methods of marking candidate teak trees included the ring marking of trees with paints, steel tags and star pickets.
However, all these methods have failed over time,  due to natural or manmade conditions.
With the advancement in technology such as the  global positioning system (GPS),  it makes the job easier for scientist or technical officers to accurately pinpoint the exact location of selected teak trees in plantations, wood lots and trial sites making it easier to locate specific or marked trees.
A trial run on the GPS was put to test in the various teak sites in the Central province, East New Britain and Morobe to see if it wouldwork.
The testing opportunity to use GPS was under the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) project titled ‘Adding Value to Community Grassland’.
 “With help from the Forest Management Division and the Mapping Branch at the NFS headquarters, a team comprising of M Howcroft, Francis Vilamur, Constin Bigol and Ripa Karo went about to test the idea of using GPS on locating trees in specific sites,” Mr Jeffery said.
“The test was to prove if a candidate tree can be located once the exact location was recorded into GPS data”.
He added that once the GPS position for a selected candidate teak was recorded they could return to that particular tree in future to re-measure and collect seeds or vegetative plant parts to access the status of the tree.
With the GPS used in tree location,  it will be helpful for technical and scientific officers to locate the exact tree location to collect coppicing materials if the trees were felled or burnt down for record and data purposes.

How Papua New Guinea can learn from the Taiwan experience

Captions: The author on the observation deck on the 89^th Floor of the Taipei 101 in July 2007 2. Taipei 101 – the tallest building in the world.

 

A half-century ago, Taiwan was basically on the same boat that Papua New Guinea is on right now.

It was a resource-poor, under-developed tropical island.

Through sustained good policies over the past few decades, it has lifted its population from poverty, joining the ranks of the most-prosperous and competitive economies in the world.

Unlike Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, it was able to weather quite unharmed the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

While advanced Asian countries have emphasised large corporate units, the Taiwanese economy is dominated by 97 per cent small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

While this might seem a disadvantage, the industry is structured in such a way that clusters of SMEs can service larger enterprises.

The entrepreneurial spirit generated by Taiwan’s difficult economic situation and lack or resources in earlier decades emphasised flexibility and cost-consciousness.

Taiwanese companies are accustomed to turbulent times and constant change, and expect to have to change products every six months.

This structure provides great flexibility and rapid response times, while allowing for a more human scale and stronger personal relationships within the companies.

Today, Taiwan is a technological powerhouse that ranks among the world’s top producers of notebook personal computers, flat panel displays, modems, motherboards and other electronic components and products.

In 2004 it ranked fourth globally in the production value of its IT hardware.

It was also fifth in the World Economic Forum’s 2005-2006 Global Competitiveness rankings, with a strong showing in the area of technology and innovation, ranking 3^rd in the world in the technology index.

The 2005-2006 Global Competitiveness Report highlights Taiwan’s exceptional strength in technology issues, including an impressive capacity for innovation, firm-level technology absorption, university/industry collaboration in research, and its pre-eminent position in the use of the latest technologies, from mobile phones to personal computers and the Internet.

Taiwan is indeed a model for countries, such as our Papua New Guinea, who are striving to improve their performance and competitiveness in information and communication technologies.

Taiwan’s transition from a poor agricultural society into an increasingly-sophisticated powerhouse of high-technology manufacturing and the world’s leading producer of information and communication technology products is, without doubt, one of the most-compelling development stories of the past half century.

However, as with all other countries that wish to maintain a competitive edge, the authorities will have to remain vigilant.

There is scope for further improvements in enhancing the quality of public institutions by increasing levels of transparency and openness.

Taiwan should in coming years aim to reach the standards of the Nordic countries in this area.

It has already matched their technological prowess.

Now it must reach their levels of efficiency in public sector management.

In his case study on Taiwan in the 2004-2005 Global Information Technology Report (Lin, 2005), FC Lin traces the evolution of Taiwan’s ICT industry through the first economic miracle of Taiwan’s transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy (1953-1986), and describes the second miracle of its industrial restructuring (1987-2000), when low technology industries were forced to relocate overseas and were replaced by technology-intensive industries, particularly in the Information Technology sector.

In half a century, per capita GNP rose from US$196 to US$14,032.

Lin attributes these successes to the following factors:

• Strong government leadership in maintaining a high growth rate and a strong fiscal situation;
• Manpower development with a high level of science and technology graduates;
• The coalescing of high-tech clusters following the model of Silicon Valley;
• The development of venture capital supporting high-tech small and medium enterprises; and
• A highly-energetic private sector.

 

He identifies the future challenges as breaking into the advanced industrial and research areas of application integration, technical innovation, and standards formulation as global competition reduces profit margins.

Today, everyone recognises the economic challenge that mainland China represents for Taiwan.

With the rapid growth of the economy in mainland China, there are increasing business ties between the mainland and Taiwan, despite as yet unresolved issues on the political front.

Trade between the two is growing rapidly, and a large number of Taiwanese, perhaps up to a million, are now working in mainland China.

There is a high level of investment as well, now estimated at US$100 billion, as the mainland is the logical place for Taiwanese businesses to delocalise production that is no longer competitive in Taiwan, taking advantage of low land prices and cheap labour.

These strengthening trade, economic and business links will undoubtedly serve to create the conditions for a peaceful co-operative resolution of outstanding bilateral political issues.

 

We must keep our parks clean

I took my children for a stroll to the park at Gerehu Stage 2 in Port Moresby yesterday and was quite impressed at work on the new basketball court progressing well (pictured).
My kids went to play (pictured), while I sat on the grass, watching them play and taking pictures.
The concept of parks is a great one, long overdue in the national capital, by National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop.
However, what caught my attention was the amount of litter, mainly plastics, in the park.
Littering reflects the no-caring attitude of Papua New Guineans and this attitude has to stop.
We must be happy that we now have parks and recreational facilities for our children and do our bit by looking after them and keeping them clean.

Cry, the beloved country Papua New Guinea

Looking back all those years since 1975, I am now firmly of the view that independence came too early, much too early when Papua New Guinea wasn’t prepared.

We neglected our education and health systems and are now paying a high price for it with the numerous social problems in Papua New Guinea.

Pre-independence, and the early days of independence, there was still a strong colonial impact; strong missionary influence.

The came independence!

We did not have the capability to properly educate all our children, many of whom dropped out of school, and being unemployed, turn to a vicious never-ending circle of crime which continues to this day.

These people, being poorly educated, couldn’t properly educate their children and the problem passed on to the next generation.

We also did not have the capability to manage and improve our health services, which have degenerated over the years.

We are now paying a high price for the many years of neglect by the government and the prime minister – Sir Michael Somare – must now admit to the people of Papua New Guinea that he has just about destroyed us by fighting for early independence from Australia.

A nation’s prosperity is measured by the levels of education, health and general living conditions of its population at large.

All you have at present is a resilient majority as spectators of a politically-powerful and economically influential elitist minority who live in high price apartments and glass houses in exclusive Port Moresby and offshore locations.

The present education and health data in brief are:

 

Education

 

•           55% of people are illiterate;

•           50% of school aged children are not in school;

•           High drop out/low retention rate;

•           Lagging behind in teachers training.

 

 

Health

 

People are still dying from easily preventable and treatable diseases.

•           7,300 babies under 1 year die each day (20 per day);

•           10,200 babies under five years die (28 per day);

•           220,000 babies less than five years have no proper nutrition;

•           3,700 mothers die every day (10 mothers dying per day);

•           Half of all children in Papua New Guinea are not immunised;

•           60% of mothers not properly supervised when giving birth;

•           70% of people have no access to safe drinking water;

•           HIV/AIDS spread rapidly through Papua New Guinea over the last 10 years;

•           Over 14,000 confirmed HIV/AIDS cases;

•           Estimates of HIV/AIDS cases putting infection rate at 1-2% of population