Nambawan Super on a property drive

Property development has seen significant growth in Papua New Guinea mainly in Port Moresby and with the multi-billion kina PNG LNG project, this development is evident in the new buildings being constructed.
Nambawan Super has been a market leader in prime property acquisitions for well over 10 years with its ownership of commercial properties in central business district along Champion Parade:  IRC Building, Burns House, Era Rumana Building and Mogoru Moto building.
In Waigani Nambawan Super owns Vulupindi Haus and Aopi Centre.
In Lae the Nambawan Super properties are IPI Building and Vele Rumana.
According to Managing director of Nambawan Super, Leon Buskens, Nambawan Super was taking the lead in this investment to meet the rising demands for office space and residential homes.
In 2008 alone, Nambawan Super had invested up to K351 million in property investments, both commercial and residential and this investment was mainly taken
up in Port Moresby.
In the last 10 years, the major property development has seen the construction of 35 executive style apartments which snake along the top of Port Moresby’s Touguba Hill – The Coastwatchers Apartments – which is a joint venture with Lamana Development at a cost of K9m.
Other developments include:
•       Eight-Mile (Malolo Estate) housing project in which 62 houses have been built for the Superfund members to purchase and with more houses being planned for erection;
•       A K60m six-storey commercial centre at Taurama (Port Moresby) is expected to be constructed next year;
•       The Port Tower currently under construction on Hunter Street in Port Moresby to cater for office space and executive apartments and is expected to be completed next year;
•       The Gazelle International Hotel in Kokopo, a joint venture with Lamana Developments and the East New Britain provincial government;
•       The ‘Top Town’ building in Lae which will be completed next year; and
•       Further commercial developments for offices, industrial warehouses in Kokopo.

Nambawan Super gears up for another office complex

Amidst the shortage of office space in Port Moresby, Nambawan Super is gearing up for a new A-grade standard commercial office development in which construction is being planned for mid 2010.
The six-storey building, which will have a key unique feature with a design that will be based on ‘environmentally sustainable design (ESD) principles or more commonly known as a ‘green’ building,  may become the first of its kind built in the country.
The new building,  to cost K60 million,  will be built alongside the Hubert Murray Highway opposite the Murray Barracks and takes up space that was formerly the Taurama Squash Courts.
Nambawan Super will be moving its offices to the new building and will take up two floors, while the other floors will be allocated for either commercial office space
and or services.
The new office complex will include five levels of commercial office space, ground floor of lobby and retail space and two levels of basement parking.
The building design will include a central atrium running the full height of the
building in order to enhance and provide natural daylight to all the office floors, as well as allowing fresh air circulation to improve indoor air quality and environment.
The atrium also allows for interconnecting communications stairs between floors to enhance flexibility and connectivity of the office environment.
Among other ESD initiatives being considered in the building plan will be to incorporate
extensive sunshade to the facades and developing a management system to manage all the building services systems such as the monitoring of energy use, and water recycling.
The total development will be 5500 sq m with each typical commercial office floor covering 1000 sq m.
The architect and the design consultant team will soon be appointed to start work on the design of the office complex while tender for a builder is expected to be announced next year in order to select a builder to begin construction work.
The total development,  which includes design, planning authority approvals, tendering and construction will take about 29 months to complete and should be available for tenancy by early 2012.

Nambawan Super invests in Kokopo hotel industry

The historic site of Queen Emma’s residence at Ralum near Kokopo in East New Britain will soon become an impressive three-storey hotel called Gazelle International.
Construction work started early this year on the multimillion kina hotel which is jointly owned by Nambawan Super which has majority shareholding, plus Airways Hotel and East New Britain provincial government.
The owners of the new development have taken into account the invaluable historical significance of the hotel site and have modeled the design of the hotel to reflect as much as possible Queen Emma’s original house.
This included renovating the original steps of the Queen Emma residence as a draw card and a major tourist attraction.
The steps are still located on the hotel property leading towards the golf course.
The hotel will comprise a reception, lobby shop, coffee lounge, restaurant, bar and poker machines all on the ground floor, while a total of 52 rooms make up the two upper floors.
Other amenities will include a resort pool, and a separate conference building which will seat up to about 150 persons.
In recent years, an influx of people have been attracted to Kokopo for conferences and a real need for good facilities have been unavailable to cater for their needs.
The builders for the hotel are Lamana Development Limited while the architect is Peter Kubli of Cairns.
According to the builders, the Gazelle International Hotel is designed to cater for a mix of customers, international tourists as well as conference people and weekenders.
All rooms will have spectacular views over-looking the blue waters of Blanche Bay and looking up to the green hills of Kokopo.
Building material for the hotel is mostly from PNG and via PNG suppliers.
Specialised equipment and furnishings are imported from various countries.
The Hotel which is expected to be completed early 2010, will bring about greater employment opportunities creating jobs for around 60 people, and will also
contribute to boosting the province’s economy through the development of tourism.
The hotel project managers agree: “Kokopo is a significant economic centre in Papua New Guinea plus it has an enormous untapped tourism potential.
“Rabaul, before the volcanic eruptions was held in high esteem as the most beautiful town in the country.
“We believe Kokopo will continue to expand, and with its unique mix of natural wonders, will attract people to visit this beautiful part of the world.”
Managing director of Nambawan Super, Leon Buskens said the new hotel investment should not be seen as competing with existing accommodation facilities but rather complementing them as the hotel was pitched at another segment of the market.
The larger conference room facility compared to the accommodation will mean
sharing of rooms within the Kokopo market
Mr Buskens said: “We are looking also at spreading our investments outside of Port Moresby and Lae where the investment returns are sustainable.
“The principle of partnership is one of long-term strategic value with the Lamana/Airways group which means that we are tapping into a proven and quality local brand with international standards, while the provincial government business arms bring local content and business alignment with provincial governments.
“Already one such model is operating in Alotau, in the Alotau International Hotel. “Likewise, the fund is also looking at the other centres to create a local hotel chain
with international quality standards.”
He added that the partnership provided much needed training and development of local people as well as expertise in international hotel management services through the Airways/Lamana group.
Conversely, the involvement of provincial governments provides local representation and content.

Marimari Lutheran church fundraising continues

The all-woman fundraising committee at their dinner last Friday

Rev Somi Setu makes a point at the fundraising dinner

Fundraising for the proposed Gordons Marimari Lutheran Church in Port Moresby is progressing well with another successful corporate fundraising dinner at the Grand Palace Restaurant last Friday.
The dinner was well attended by about 400 people, who paid K200 each, with pledges totaling about K43, 700 made.
The fundraising committee is made up of an all-woman crew, who since 2006, have raised about K300, 000 of a targeted K1 million.
Work on the proposed Marimari church building, designed by Rumbam Engineers, is expected to start in 2011.
“We started this fundraising activity in Oct 2006,” committee chairman Dennie Milan said.
“Up to now, we have raised about K300, 000.
“The committee is made up of all women.
“Hopefully, in 2011, we should set up the foundation.
“The target is K1m.”
Mrs Milan said the annual corporate dinner was the major fundraising activity of the last three years.
“Other church activities are a church fete, and a food fair where we cook different types of food and sell,” she said.
“We also have a special basket in front of the church every Sunday, where church-goers can make their offering.”
Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG Southern region president Rev Somi Setu commended women fundraising committee members for their hard work over the years.
“We know that women can do great thing,” he said.
“It was about 10 years ago that the project was launched.
“It’s quite a long journey that the (Marimari) congregation has taken to come this far.
“Rome was not built in a day.
“It took many years for this city to be built.”
Those who made pledges during the dinner included Rumbam Engineering (K10,000); Kelly Naru (K8,000); Mondo Clothing (K6,000); Savo & Grace (K3,500); Dr Joseph Pagelio and family (K3,000); Sed Limited and Dr Korimbom (K2,000); Paul Mawa Lawyers (K2,000); Mr Kit Moya (K2,000); Gabriel Samol and family (K2,000); Rev Somi Setu and family (K1,500); Pacific Software (K1,000); Wendy Mawa (K500); and Thomas Laka (K200).

A Port Moresby rhapsody

Luxury cruise liner Rhapsody of the Seas sailed into Port Moresby last Saturday with more than 2,000 tourists and berthed for 12 hours, allowing its passengers a taste of Papua New Guinea.
The visit marked a milestone for PNG tourism as it was the largest number of tourists to visit our shores at a single time.
More than 1,000 tourists disembarked and boarded about 60 hired buses for a tour of the city.
Other activities included a huge craft market staged within the wharf’s premises, organised by the Tourism Promotion Authority.
The cruise ship sailed in from Cairns, Australia, carrying with it tourists from all around the world who flew in to Australia for a cruise around the South Pacific.-Pictures courtesy of FRANK ASAELI of PNG Ports Corporation
 

Law on mining and Anderson's lies

By James Wanjik, Former Secretary for Mining

 

THE PATRIMONY the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum and its Executive Director and a co-foundation board member of a counterfeit regulator of mines in Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) Greg Anderson had on mine-related issues in PNG are and will be increasingly questioned and challenged by leaders. No law and lies of Greg Anderson will stop the wind of change that is turning into a tornado.

Time was when law and lies of the miners and their Chamber were taken as gospel truth. No more.

While the current debate on Resource Ownership Bill before Parliament is in my considered view not properly and carefully stated, it is rather a matter for PNG leaders and the people of this country to decide whether a change in mineral policy and law is needed or not.

Greg Anderson is a foreigner meddler in a PNG people’s issue of their national heritage. None is more daring as his dangerous law and lies on the law on mineral ownership and regulation of mines.

I am known and either loved or loathed for my legal knowledge, experience and skills in mineral and hydrocarbon law, policy and practice in PNG.

Greg Anderson knows that. Had he and Graeme Hancock now at World Bank in Washington been dealing with other resources lawyers they would have silenced them with any number of inducements. One just has to look at MRA and its offshoot the new Department of Mineral Policy and Geological Hazard (DMPGH). The truth is out.

The mineral resource ownership issue is supposedly the responsibility of the new DMPGH to address but it is in a conflict of interest. Likewise, the matter of regulation is supposedly for the MRA to deal with. The influence Greg Anderson has in MRA and DMPGH and the moneys put in the MRA till and World Bank Loan for DMPGH put together by Graeme Hancock in late 2005 and early 2006 and put in MRA to avoid PNG’s procurement law tells of huge fraud and corruption in mining business.

Having an informed debate is an absolute necessity. PNG lawyers must take serious interest in mining law, policy and practice. Making money for pride and ego will not replace our way of life. Land, resources and people have symbiotic relationship since time immemorial. Blood bound them and land cemented them. Resources and their utilisation were for communal and tribal purposes and livelihood.

Greg Anderson comes from a culture of private and individual progress. It is a double for Mohammad Bashir and Greg Anderson to choose a worthless title; “Private resource ownership ‘bad’” and give a bad law and lies Anderson is known for.

I have a number of experiences Greg Anderson and Graeme Hancock have been involved in to undermine my assistance to the mining industry.

MRA is a bad law for PNG. I warned the Government and the Government listened to Greg Anderson and Graeme Hancock. I paid with position, pay and privileges.

I advised Graeme Hancock and Kuma Aua the then Secretary for Mining and now PNG’s Ambassador to South Korea in Seoul that Bougainville is different from other provinces that it has mining powers since 2001 Peace Agreement.

Instead of exempting Bougainville from the MRA law, Graeme Hancock, Greg Anderson and other co-advisers to the former Minister for Mining Sam Akoitai convinced him to present to the Cabinet and Parliament MRA Bill with 9 clauses and 15 issues on Panguna mine.

If I had not warned the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), MRA would have seen Bougainville walk right back to the Panguna mine-related crisis.

The ABG leaders confided in me that Akoitai had lied to them about me. On 10 December 2008 two village elders from Buin in South Bougainville met me on arrival in Buka airport car-park. They had come from Buin just to see who I was and to let me know that Akoitai had been to their area and used my name to be the President of Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Akoitai lost after the Buin people knew the truth.

In 2000 I had been appointed Acting Director for Mining at which time I was also heading an inter-agency team on a number of new policies. Among these the key ones were Offshore Minerals Policy, Mine Closure and Sustainability Planning Policy, Marine Scientific Research Consent Regime and Regional Maritime Boundaries Project Technical Group. The Marine Scientific Research Consent Regime was a success. The Maritime Boundaries Project is also a success.

The Offshore Minerals Policy and the Mine Closure and Sustainability Policy were hijacked by Graeme Hancock without notice. Offshore Minerals Policy was up to now delayed by Graeme Hancock. I approached the lawyers engaged by the World Bank. They said this would require huge work. It was revealed subsequently that the moneys for the work on the Offshore Minerals Policy were moved to other areas of World Bank operations. It is a mystery.

Mine Closure and Sustainability Planning Policy and the “Bill” for it was done. Politics of miners did not see it realised. Their view was one of undermining people of PNG. The view of the miners was PNG was not about end of mining at some point in time. Mine Closure Planning was a bad policy that would confuse people of PNG was the patronising position of the miners. As a Papua New Guinean driving this policy I knew that I was exposing one of the most important issues of under development that had eluded PNG for decades of mining.

I kept my professional integrity unlike other lawyers only because Graeme Hancock could not buy my nationalism and national pride. He knew this from the time of my transfer to the Department of Mining from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in March 1998.          

I was using my own private vehicle to and from work and for work runs and Graeme Hancock seeing other nationals’ vulnerability in similar situation as the one I was in tried his bait but I had been in a Senior Management position before that so I told him that I was not in a Senior Management position at the Department of Mining to be entitled to an official vehicle or an allowance in lieu.

Graeme Hancock told me that he could do it with ease. That was when Graeme Hancock knew that I had been using my own vehicle since 1992 to and from work and for work runs. During those years not once at any time have I asked or even been paid for use of my private vehicle for work.

In 2001 when I applied for the Director for Mining position I was the most qualified and experienced national among the applicants.

Graeme Hancock knew that I was the most feared professional. If I had won the position he would not have had the ease that he had from 2000 – late 2005 and first quarter of 2006.

In late December 2005 the lobby for the position of Secretary for Mining had intensified in Cabinet. Graeme Hancock had his hope in Kuma Aua dashed when the Cabinet knew of total incompetence in mineral regulation.

Graeme Hancock then tried his very best to get to Bougainville and into Panguna mine on a K 6 million Letter of Engagement. He would probably now know that I advised the Government not to proceed with the Letter of Engagement. Lot of leaders would have lost their integrity if I had not given the advice.

Akoitai did not know that I had landed the Secretary for Mining on 8 December 2005. He was not interested in the Department of Mining by then.

Akoitai was arrogant and egoistic so much so he allowed Graeme Hancock who was a master at manipulating laws, leaders and public servants to manipulate and control him. So Akoitai got Speaker of Parliament to certify the MRA Act 2005 on 23 December 2005.

After the Prime Minister had resumed duties Akoitai advised the Head of State to commence operation of the MRA Act 2005 on 24 January 2006 backdated to be effective on 1 January 2006. This the Minister for Mining had no power to do. It was a fraud on Prime Minister’s powers. Fraud is a legal ground to void the MRA.   

Prior to my appointment as Secretary for Mining I warned the Government to remove Kuma Aua as Secretary and Graeme Hancock as his adviser. Kuma Aua had no support from the Government. Graeme Hancock was now powerless. When I became Secretary for Mining I gave him notice under his consultancy contract that he should be preparing to leave as I as the Supervisor of the World Bank Loan at the Mines Department would not be recommending renewal of his contract. Graeme Hancock left in a most humiliating way five days prior to expiry and without a project closure report. Auditor General’s Office and their contracting auditors tried in vain to have me release Graeme Hancock from legal and financial implications on his project management of the World Bank Loan at the Department of Mining. Any thorough audit will show that I nailed Graeme Hancock at his game.

Now Graeme Hancock will regret influencing Nellie James, Philip Samar, Shadrach Himata, Ron Gawi, Janet Amean, Stevie Nion and Valentine Kambori and Joshua Kalinoe for removing me in December 2006 and the subsequent smothering of the Department of Mining in 2007. Politics of MRA has only been in the simmers. It will reach boiling point very very soon. When it does the MRA will blame the moles of World Bank and the moles will expose Graeme Hancock for manipulating and controlling them.

Waiting on God paid off. We won gold medal.

 

Papua New Guinea thrashes Tonga

Papua New Guinea gave a rugby league lesson to Tonga with a 44-14 thrashing in their SP Brewery Pacific Cup rugby league game at the Lloyd Robson Oval in Port Moresby yesterday.
The Kumuls will face the Cook Islands in next Sunday's Pacific Cup final and will be confident of winning through to next year's Four Nations in front of a vocal home crowd.
Led capably by their UK-based contingent of Menzie Yere, Jason Chan and John Wilshere, the Kumuls held a 20-4 halftime lead and racked up another 24 points after the break.
The sheer class of PNG showed all over the paddock through the UK trio, fullback David Mead, halves Dion Aye and Keith Peter, props Rodney Pora and James Nightingale, hooker Jay Aston, backrowers Chan and Siegfried Gande, and lock Jessie Joe Parker,
Tonga struggled to hold their defensive line in the Port Moresby heat and was unable to create any real penetration, despite the best efforts of captain Seleti Mateo.
The local boys, with a patriotic home crowd behind them, opened up their account just five minutes in the game when the stylish Yere, later named man-of-the-match, raced over for a centre try goaled by Wilshere for a 6-0 lead.
The Mate Ma’s replied with a 12th minute touchdown to centre Sione Tonga, the first of his hat-trick, but it was all one-way traffic after that as the Kumuls piled on tries through Chan (20min), centre Anton Kui (27min) and David Mead (39min).
The avalanche continued in the second half as PNG added further tries to replacement backliner Jessie Joe Parker (42min), Mead (50min), Yere (64min) and replacement backliner Charlie Wabo (67min), all goaled by Wilshere, for an unassailable 44-4 lead.
Wabo was a crowd pleaser when he entered the field and had the crowd cheering every time he had the ball.
The Kumuls looked set the pass the half-century, however, slowed down in the last 11 minutes to allow Tonga, one of the hardest tries for his country, to run in tries in the 69th and 78th minutes.
PNG 44 (Yere 2, Mead 2, Yere, Chan, Kui, Mead, Wabao tries; Wilshere 4 goals) bt Tonga 14 (Tonga 3 tries; Eddy Paea goal). Scrums: Tonga 7-5. Penalties: PNG 5-4.