ADB SUPPORTS OVER $1 BILLION IN CLEAN ENERGY INVESTMENTS IN THE PACIFIC UNTIL 2021 — REPORT

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (7 June 2018) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will support over $1 billion in energy investments in the Pacific between 2018–2021, including 19 projects to help countries in the subregion have better access to quality, affordable, and sustainable energy sources, according to a new ADB report.

The Pacific Energy Update 2018 provides a comprehensive overview of ADB’s energy-focused work in the Pacific. The publication highlights the impacts of ADB-supported energy initiatives completed in 2017 and ongoing in 2018, while providing details of ADB’s future plans in the subregion’s energy sector.

“ADB is helping the Pacific region plan for a renewable energy future and improve regional energy systems by promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy; maximising access to energy for all; and supporting energy sector reform, capacity building, and effective governance,” said ADB’s Transport, Energy, and Natural Resources Division Director for the Pacific Mr. Olly Norojono.

The report highlighted ADB’s efforts and partnership with governments, communities, private sector, and other development partners to help improve the availability and quality of clean and affordable sustainable power in the Pacific region. It also provides a country-by-country snapshot of various energy projects and technical assistance, which Pacific governments have prioritized for ADB assistance.

Cofinanced by ADB, the European Union, and the Government of the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands Renewable Energy Sector Project will help lower the country’s reliance on fossil fuels by building solar-powered plants on five of its islands and help the government achieve its goal of supplying 100% of inhabited islands with renewable energy by 2020.

Meanwhile, ADB is assisting the Government of Fiji in developing the institutional capacity for regulation of the country’s electricity sector, while developing a sector investment planning framework.

The Yap Renewable Energy Development Project in the Federated States of Micronesia, funded by two ADB loans, supported the construction of a wind farm capable of withstanding typhoons. Grid-connected solar panels were also installed on about five government buildings across the island and new fuel-efficient diesel generators replaced aging ones.

Nauru’s power outlook improved dramatically when the government installed two new energy-efficient, diesel generators—completed under the Nauru Electricity Supply Security and Sustainability Project, with initial grant funding from ADB and the European Union, and later supported with additional funding from the governments of Australia and Nauru.

Together with other ADB-financed renewable energy interventions, ADB is assisting Papua New Guinea achieve its national electrification objectives while promoting a shift to clean energy from power generated from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, ADB’s energy assistance in the Solomon Islands include supporting the country’s drive to tap more of its energy from clean sources, including hydro and solar power.

ADB approved the Pacific Renewable Energy Investment Facility in June 2017 to help fund a series of renewable energy projects and sector reforms in the smallest 11 Pacific island countries. For instance, a project to help reduce the Marshall Islands’ consumption of fossil fuels and increase renewable energy generation—20% of the country’s energy mix by 2020— received a $2 million grant from the facility in December 2017.

ADB is currently supporting 15 active projects in 11 countries in the Pacific worth $426 million.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing.

PNG demands new name for Taiwan office

by Stacy Hsu, taipeitimes.com
June 2, 2018

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that the Papua New Guinean government last month insisted that Taiwan’s representative office change its name due to repeated pressure from China.

Since late last year, China had taken advantage of its status as the second-largest provider of aid to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to keep pressuring the government to change the name of Taiwan’s representative office and its treatment of the office’s staff, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.

“Despite the office’s best efforts, the PNG government was not able to withstand China’s carrot-and-stick pressure and eventually demanded a change of name,” Lee said, adding that the name change does not have any substantial impact on the office’s operations.

China’s demands first came to the ministry’s attention in February when Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) praised the PNG government’s adherence to the “one China” principle when responding to reporters’ questions over allegations that Taiwan’s trade office had been asked to rename itself.

The ministry acknowledged at the time that the nation’s trade office in PNG had been asked to change its name, as well as remove its nameplate and diplomatic license plates from its vehicles, but stressed that bilateral negotiations were still underway.

The office, which was previously named the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Papua New Guinea has been renamed as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Papua New Guinea.

It is not the nation’s first overseas representative office to have been forced to undergo a name change due to Chinese pressure.

The nation’s trade offices in Ecuador, Bahrain, Nigeria, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have also been forced to remove the term Republic of China or Taiwan from their designation.

Taiwan and PNG, despite not having formal diplomatic relations, have had close exchanges in the areas of energy, trade and fisheries since the 1990s, Lee said.

“Taiwan has also begun cooperating on agriculture and medical health,” he said.

The ministry understands the situation the nation’s international friends face due to Chinese pressure, Lee said, adding that Taiwan would continue its substantial exchanges and cooperation with PNG to safeguard its dignity and rights.

ALLAN PATIENCE: The serious under-development of Papua New Guinea’s university system

by ALLAN PATIENCE, johnmenadue.com
June 1, 2018

There is a crisis in Papua New Guinea’s university system. Universities are devastatingly under-resourced and under-performing. The bizarre persecution of PNG University of Technology’s Vice-Chancellor, Dr Albert Schram, also points to a disastrous governance breakdown at university council level. Can the Australian university sector do anything to help? Yes it can.  

University students in Australia today are often criticised for being self-absorbed and indifferent to domestic and international politics. Some of this criticism is unjust because there certainly are students who are sincerely committed to better understanding their world and they certainly want to help in making it a better place. But quite a few are also uncritically accepting of what they regard as their just entitlements. Their campuses are groaning with extra-curricular facilities – gyms, swimming pools, playing fields, tennis courts, a wide range of food outlets and coffee shops, and a bewildering variety of clubs and societies catering for every imaginable pastime and inclination. All this they take for granted.

Meanwhile, right on Australia’s northern doorstep, there are university students struggling under conditions of the most shocking physical and educational under-development of almost any third world country today. In 2010 Professor Ross Garnaut and Sir Rabbie Namaliu were commissioned jointly by the Australian and PNG governments to report on the growing crisis in PNG’s higher education system. Their report stated:

Papua New Guinea’s universities made a significant contribution to the nation in its early years. They can do so again but, right now, the quantity and quality of graduates is far short of what is needed—due to inadequate resources and a range of governance and general service quality issues.

 They noted that funding for PNG university students had declined to one seventeenth of what it had been in 1975, when Australia relinquished the administration of its then colony to the newly independent state of PNG. The consequences in almost all areas of public policy have been disastrous, including higher education. It is particularly galling that the Garnaut-Namaliu Report has been wantonly ignored by governments in both PNG and Australia for almost the past decade now.

Take, for example, the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) whose main campus is located in the suburb of Waigani in Port Moresby. UPNG is a tragedy. It is under-staffed, massively under-resourced, and very restricted in providing an education for young people to the levels that are badly needed to plan and manage the country’s social, economic and political advancement. Its infrastructure is collapsing around the ears of students and staff. The student dormitories (housing some 90 percent of students, mostly from remote villages, often with several students per room) would be classified as slums in Australia. Many of the toilets and bathrooms are broken down. The so-called recreational facilities are a couple of bare and gravelly ovals, a mess hall that serves food that few Australian students could stomach. Little else. Labs, teaching spaces and offices have broken doors, windows, benches and seating. Library resources are mostly out of date and the library’s air-conditioning breaks down so often that many books, journals, manuscripts and artifacts are deteriorating through tropical mould, inadequate indexing and curating, and everyday wear and tear. Staff and students’ access to the Internet is sporadic and limited.

There are high levels of drunkenness and violence on the UPNG main campus. Rapes have occurred in the past while young women remain vulnerable, especially at weekends when there is so little for students to do, apart from an occasional rugby game on a dusty pitch, or attendance at religious observances. Much of the anti-social behaviour is caused by the sheer boredom of being stuck on a campus without facilities and without leadership and appropriate venues to find better things to do. Many of the guys, and not a few of the women, head out to sleazy dives, to meet “wantoks” (mates, relatives, people from back home) to booze, party, fight and fornicate to pass the time. While this is by no means uncommon on Australian campuses, in PNG the situation has become seriously pathological. Yet no one is doing anything to address the seriousness of it all.

The marvelous thing is that, despite all the educational deficiencies and related problems, there are some excellent students and some very fine academic staff at UPNG. But their contributions to the academic life of the University and the nation are being severely curtailed by lack of resources and lack of proper recognition – both inside and outside the country.

Meanwhile PNG bumps along near the bottom of some of the world’s most reputable international indexes of under-development. Human Rights Watch International has reported on several occasions about the appalling breakdown in morale and discipline in the PNG police force, resulting in numerous human rights abuses across the country. Transparency International annually demonstrates that PNG is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The yearly United Nations Human Development Index shows that PNG rates among the poorest, worst governed countries in the world when it comes to issues like literacy rates (they are declining precipitously), infant and maternal mortality rates remain stubbornly high, disease pandemics (HIV and TB, for example) remain out of control. At the same time there is a population explosion, especially in the Highlands, meaning that PNG governments simply don’t have the capacity to exercise the United Nations mandated “responsibility to protect” their culturally diverse peoples. In so many ways PNG fulfills nearly all the criteria for being considered a failed state.

It’s time for Australian universities and their student representative bodies to look beyond their own creature comforts to lend a hand to their PNG counterparts. For a start, why can’t university student unions in Australia reach out to the student union at UPNG to explore how they might contribute to improving student life on the UPNG campus? For example, if their UPNG counterparts agree, maybe they could commit to raising funds to construct a swimming pool and a decent gym for the UPNG campus? Or whatever resources the UPNG students identify to improve their lives at the University.

Let’s set aside one day in each semester across all Australian universities as a fundraising day, over the next eighteen months. Students from UPNG must be invited (and paid) to attend, to explain about the conditions under which they are forced to study and to advise on what they need to improve their situation. Australian student organisations are very good at organizing and coordinating national university sporting competitions. Is it therefore too much to ask that all the university campuses coordinate just one day of fund raising for their counterparts in PNG? The swimming pool and the gym may be a good start – although this must be subject to advice from the UPNG students themselves. Any hint of neo-colonial arrogance must be avoided if cultivating this special international friendship is to succeed. If it is successful, so much mutual good will and positive international attention could be won for Australian students, while UPNG students will begin to experience a better quality of campus life.

Meanwhile university academic staff across Australia should set up a national organisation to support their beleaguered UPNG counterparts, to work with them to upgrade qualifications and to develop research profiles. In the first instance, seeking their advice, about what they believe they need, would be essential.

ANU has done some good work in this regard, but it needs to be much better and more widely resourced. This kind of engagement could provide opportunities for some senior Australian academics and also for young Australian PhD graduates to work collaboratively in PNG’s university system. They could all be contracted to spend clearly defined periods of time working alongside PNG colleagues, contributing to human capital development in the country, while gaining invaluable experience for the development – and broadening – of their own careers. Given that there is ample funding available in Australia for building wonderful “student precincts”, student unions, student residences and all, surely there could be a joint university pooling of some funds to create an academic exchange program with a university like UPNG, to reinforce the academic strengths of the country as a whole?

It is unjust for Australia’s relatively well-resourced academe to remain indifferent to the plight of PNG’s under-developed universities. It’s time for it to stop its obsessive navel gazing and look out to, and for, PNG – in the first instance. And Australian universities need also to accept that while they have a regional responsibility to help PNG’s universities to lift their game, they should also be thinking about extending real and sustained assistance to other universities across the South Pacific.

Allan Patience is a Melbourne based academic. From 2004-2006 he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Papua Province donates to PNG earthquake victims

People of Indonesia’s Papua Province on Monday last week handed over five tonnes of food and clothing assistance to earthquake victims in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

PNG consul-general Geoffrey Wiri  and Samuel Tabuni with soldiers at the border.

The Papua Language Institute (PLI) handed over the items which were collected from Papuans since March.
They included rice, noodles, tea, coffee, canned fish, sugar, milk, water, clothing, toys and balls.

The donated items being loaded onto a truck.

Institute director Samuel Tabuni said the aid was handed over to the PNG Government in the neutral zone of Republic of Indonesia-PNG in Skouw, Jayapura City, on Monday.
The aid was received by PNG consul-general Geoffrey Wiri accompanied by PNG border officer Ashley Wayne.

Samuel Tabuni presents the items to  PNG consul-general Geoffrey Wiri

Tabuni said the Indonesian military provided the vehicle provided the vehicle to transport the aid to the border.
He asked that the items be transported across the border to the needy people.
He said late delivery of aid to PNG was due to limited transportation facilities, considering the location of the earthquake in Hela and Southern Highlands provinces.
“Three months ago, we became sadly aware of the tragedy that struck the Southern Highland and Hela provinces of Papua New Guinea,” he said.
 “Even the people in Jayapura could feel this heavy quake.
“After checking what went on, we found out that our brothers and sisters at the other side of the border were hit by the natural disaster.
“Because of the close connection between the Papua Language Institute and the Papua New Guinea Government developing an international education programme, we feel obliged to help and support the victims of this tragedy as much as possible.
“Due to help of many Indonesian people of the Papua Province, we were able to collect a serious amount of commodities for disaster relief.”
“We hope our help will be received as a gift from our heart.
“Whenever we are confronted by difficulties, we need to stand together and help each other.
“Although we know that our support is far from enough, we want to express our feelings of concern for all the people who had to suffer from this earthquake.
“All of them are in our hearts and prayers.
"Hopefully, the assistance provided can ease the earthquake-affected PNG." 

Papua New Guinea receive significant investment through ICC Cricket World Cup community facility fund

icc-cricket.com | May 31, 2018

The International Cricket Council (ICC), Cricket Australia (CA), and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) in partnership with the Australian Government have made a significant investment into cricket in Papua New Guinea through the ICC Cricket World Cup Community Facility Fund where 48 community cricket facilities will be built in eleven provinces.

The Cricket World Cup Community Facility Fund is a joint legacy project by the ICC, CA, and NZC following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to help address the need for more facilities and significantly boost participation rates in cricket.

A total of $400,000 was put into the Fund by CA ($200,000), NZC ($100,000) and the ICC ($100,000) which will result in $800,000 of investment into facilities in the East Asia-Pacific region through fund matching for all projects. To date more than $80,000 has been invested in community facility projects across the region to aid the development of cricket with yesterday marking the roll out of the biggest project yet.

The ‘Cricket Facilities Enhancement Project’ is a collaborative project that will see 48 community cricket facilities built in eleven provinces across Papua New Guinea over the next two years.

The ICC’s General Manager – Development, William Glenwright believes that facilities are crucial in the growth of cricket and that it will provide a significant base for new participants to play the game and that projects like these highlight the power of successful partnerships.

 “I am delighted to see the significant investment into one of our High Performing Members. This joint project between two Full Members, the ICC and the Australian Government shows the commitment across the cricket fraternity to grow the game.

“It also shows the importance of ICC events and their role in the development of the game across all 104 Members of the ICC,” said Glenwright.

Cricket Australia’s Chief Executive James Sutherland is proud to support the project in PNG because it demonstrates the positive legacy of hosting major ICC events in Australia. “This project complements Cricket Australia’s strong support for the Australian Government’s Sports Diplomacy Strategy and sport for development initiatives in the Pacific


“We are committed to supporting the long-term growth of cricket in as many countries as possible, as shown by our strong support for this region over the last 15 years,” said Sutherland.

New Zealand Cricket’s Chief Executive David White was delighted to see such a significant legacy project from the jointly hosted ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 paying such rich dividends.

“NZC supports wholeheartedly the philosophy of growing the world game, and connecting countries and regions through the spirit of cricket. This initiative should go a long way towards boosting cricket in PNG – in terms of both participation and resourcing.

Currently Cricket PNG has over 190,000 boys and girls, men and women involved in cricket programs around the country with a vision to make cricket PNG’s favourite family sport. While the sport is proving immensely popular among school children, the lack of dedicated cricket facilities has made access to cricket competitions difficult in many areas.

For Joe Arua, a 14-year-old school student from Central District province there is potential, passion and love for cricket in the school and community. “One thing that prevents us from playing more cricket is an oval without a cricket pitch. It would be great if we had a cricket pitch in our school to be used by the community as well,” said Arua.

Cricket PNG hopes the project will result in more than 20,000 Papua New Guineans participating in regular cricket competitions.

Cricket PNG Chairperson Helen Macindoe believes this is arguably the biggest infrastructure project that Cricket PNG have been involved in since Cricket PNG was formed in 1973. “Last year we were able to upgrade the Amini Park facilities but this project will help with the development of cricket nationwide, in line with our vision to be PNG’s favourite family sport,” Macindoe concluded.

Construction on the ‘Cricket Facilities Enhancement Project’ will begin immediately in the National Capital District with the first pitches expected to be ready for communities in the second half of the year.

Port Moresby: The City of Buai Stains

By REUBEN AOPI
Citizen Journalist

Port Moresby is gearing up to host its biggest international event - the APEC Leaders' Summit 2018.

Betelnut spit and rubbish is a feature of Port Mores by.-Picture by REUBEN AOPI

It expects both Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US president Donald Trump to be among the thousands of delegates.
The filth that buai (betelnut) is causing will be a visible sight our visitors will not miss. Irresponsible citizens,  high on the drug,  continue to spit and dispose of the husk in a manner in which only people without a brain would operate.
Betelnut stains can be seen on footpaths, walls of shopping centres, car parks, roads and on the very own teeth of chewers themselves.
With the rising prices of food and commodities in the country, it is not unusual for local folks to chew betelnut during the day to curtail hunger and then eat one big dinner meal at home to save money. 
Aside from controlling hunger, local folks also feel a sense of euphoria throughout the day after they chew. 
In addition, most folks will say that betelnut is PNG’s version of coffee in the morning- an instant eye-opener to start the work day.  Some chew one betel nut at a time intermittently throughout the day, while some chew more than one at a time. 
On average, locals will chew between eight to 10 betel nuts in one day.
Papua New Guineans rely on the sale of betelnut for their livelihoods.
A native cash crop, betel nut is referred to as "green gold".
It is completely untaxed.
Markets often have an area dedicated solely to betel nut vendors.
Prices for one betel nut and mustard stick vary between 50t to K1 dependent upon the location, season and recent growing conditions.
The habit, which is virtually a national pastime, involves chewing the small palm tree nut, which is mixed with lime powder and mustard, before spitting out red-tinged spittle to the floor.
The mixture produces a mild stimulant likened to the rush from cigarettes.
The streets of the capital, Port Moresby, are littered with the red spills and husks.
The spitting of pathogenic saliva increases the spread of disease.
In a country with one of the highest infection rates of tuberculosis in the world, this habit poses huge contamination risks.

About the author

Reuben Aopi was born in Daru Island on Oct 8,  1988.

His father Pala Aopi was a painter, and his mother Sibaio was a retired nurse.

Both have gone to be with our Lord.

China, Papua New Guinea co-build agricultural industrial park

by Hu Pingchao, app.silkroad.news.cn
May 31, 2018

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China Railway International Group (CRIG) has recently signed an agreement with Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s authorities about the land-use right transfer to support construction of an agricultural industrial park under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Photo: A valley in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

Under the agreement, the Chinese company will own the use right of the lands in the Eastern Highlands Province and the Western Highlands Province in PNG for 99 years. The lands cover an area of more than 6,000 mu (15 mu equal one hectare).

The lands are located in the core area of the China-PNG agriculture industrial park under the Belt and Road Initiative, co-built by China Railway Group (CRG), parent company of CRIG, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, and provinces of PNG.