Prime Minister James Marape explains to University of Technology students his vision of PNG becoming the "richest black Christian country" on Thursday, Oct 3, 2019:
Prime Minister James Marape says law-and-order remains a challenge to Government.
He said this when addressing students, staff and the community at University of Technology in Lae last Thursday (Oct 3, 2019).
Prime Minister James Marape has announced a major loan scheme for tertiary students.
He made the announcement in front of hundreds of students, staff and the community of University of Technology in Lae on Thursday (Oct 3, 2019).
Prime Minister James Marape addressing students at University of Technology.
Prime Minister Marape meeting hundreds of students at University of Technology after an inspiring speech.
There is, however, one catch: Parents of students must be involved in agriculture.
Marape said the loan scheme was a “signature policy” of the 2020 Budget to be handed down next month.
“I know many of you, just like me, come from family backgrounds where parents are struggling to ensure you have school fees to support you through your tertiary education,” he said.
Marape said 99 per cent of parents in the country were struggling to pay tertiary school fees for their children.
“We want to embark on a loan scheme that is that is interest-free and will take your lifetime to be paid,” he said.
“You don’t need to burden your parents.
“From existing resource envelope, we will rearrange.
“Help me to lobby parents nationwide.
“The burden that is most felt is not really school fee of elementary school kids, it’s not really school fee of primary school, I’m sure parents can afford K100.
“When I was going through school, my parents put me through the Seventh Day Adventist system, they paid a lot to send me to school as simple villager, it came out of mother selling her buns and working her gardens.
“Mother selling in the market put me through grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12.
“Fortunately, at university, I received a K13 allowance from Government.
“It’s not so burdensome at elementary school, primary school and high school.”
Marape said the Government would shift some of the resources allocated to free education to tertiary level.
“Those of you formally engaged in universities and colleges, those who are doing external programmes to earn meaningful engagement in life, those who want to go for further education overseas, will have a loan programme to ensure that students can come to Government, go to school,” he said.
“In the course of your life, if you are living for 100 years you pay off over 100 years, if you live for 20 years you pay off over 20 years, if you live for 30-40 years you can repay the money the Government lent you through the endowment fund programme we will set up to assist Papua New Guinea kids carry on in education.”
There is, however, an agriculture catch.
“The catch is this: In the context of growing the economy, Government will work with the commodity boards and the districts and provinces, to ensure seedlings are accessible to parents right across our country,” Marape said.
“Last time I went to the Sogeri mountains, they grow a lot of good produce, and I’m telling all Koiaris up there in the Sogeri mountains: For goodness’ sake, don’t only sell buai to Port Moresby City.
“Port Moresby City is a city of a million people, a million people eat every day, grow the cabbages and everything else and supply to Port Moresby City.
“Next year, we will engage in a partnership: You want to come to the loan centre and pick up a loan for your school fee, your parents or guardians must go to a district somewhere and pick up seedlings of coffee, cocoa, copra and go and work their land in the agriculture space.
“That is the partnership we want: Everyone must contribute to the economy.
“That parent who is picking up a coffee seedling somewhere is not to repay the money you’re getting for your school fee: It’s their money, we’re just telling them to contribute to the economy.”
Marape said as the policy unfolded leading up to the 2020 Budget, students would know more about it, “and I look forward to a better 2020 that will start or cement the direction in which our country will travel in the 2020s”.
He urged students to register themselves with the National Identification programme to benefit from the loan scheme.
ZURICH — FIFA banned an ally of disgraced former vice president David Chung for financial wrongdoing linked to Papua New Guinea hosting the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in 2016.
John Wesley Gonjuan was banned for two years, eight months on Friday and fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,250).
John Wesley Gonjuan
Gonjuan was investigated after an audit “revealed a conflict of interest with a company owned by Mr. Gonjuan and the receipt of an unjustified amount” linked to the 2016 FIFA tournament. The amount of money was not specified.
The FIFA executive committee, including Chung and chaired by Sepp Blatter, awarded the women’s tournament to Papua New Guinea in March 2015.
FIFA said Gonjuan was charged with conflict of interest and accepting gifts _ the same charges which last year removed Chung from his FIFA role and as Oceania Football Confederation president.
Chung, who lead Oceania from 2010-18, was banned by FIFA for 6½ years for financial wrongdoing linked to a $20 million project to build its new headquarters in New Zealand.
After Chung left his soccer positions in 2018, Gonjuan stepped up as interim president of Papua New Guinea’s soccer federation.
Prime Minister James Marape lays out his roadmap for agriculture at the South Pacific Institute of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SPISARD) seminar at the University of Technology in Lae on Thursday, Oct 3, 2019
The Marape-Steven Government is repositioning all Government policies and laws towards ensuring Papua New Guinea becomes economically independent.
University of Technology students welcoming Prime Minister James Marape to the Lae campus on Thursday morning.
PMJM receiving a gift from University of Technology Chancellor Jean Kekedo after addressing the SPISARD seminar on Thursday morning.
For what good is political independence if we aren’t economically strong?
Our citizens must have money and be self-sufficient and self-sustaining , our provinces and Bougainville must be financially strong, our National Government must have the resource envelope to ensure we not borrowers or beggars.
This is what I mean by economically independent.
In a country that is so richly endowed with natural resources, how come poverty is prevalent, how come borrowing from loans and financial plus technical grants continues to be the modus operandi to fill in the revenue gaps to support our country’s development needs?
As I look at the rich endowments of our Papua New Guinea, I see our minerals and hydro carbon industries must be harvested and processed in an optimum manner;
I see our forestry and fisheries sectors must be harvested sustainably and downstream processing must start in these sectors;
I see our tourism sector must grow to ensure our diverse culture and ecology yields dividend to our economy.
I also see agriculture as "mother of all industries" that our country has the greatest strength, and in agriculture lays the safety and security of our nation.
Agriculture will feed a family and the nation and agriculture will generate income for the family and the nation.
The greatest individual , country and global need is not oil, gas, gold, iron, timber, etc but food and oxygen.
We have both here in abundance PNG.
Oxygen aside and just on food, if eighr million citizens of our country are burning their kinetic energy for sustainable agriculture or spending money equivalent to K1 on food a day, it will add up to about K2.92 billion business and industry opportunity in our country alone.
That’s the most conservative estimate.
Food is a big industry and business both globally and locally.
For instance, our Government’s policy to be rice and beef sufficient by 2025 will mean that we are retaining almost $1 billion of capital flight every year offshore.
When I look at our trading partners in our APEC and ASEAN neighborhood, I see a mighty big population of 110 million Filipinos, 260 million Indonesians, 1.4 billion Chinese , and a balance of around a billion people in the Asia-Pacific region who all need to eat food every day.
Whether it’s organic food for the health conscious affluent or just food for the masses, in a world of unpredictable wether patterns, climate change and declining arable land, Papua New Guinea will be the food basket of Asia Pacific in the first instance.
Agriculture can be an economic powerhouse for PNG.
We have good quality arable land, we have water available all year round, we have sunshine all year round, and best of all our citizens own 95 percent of all our nation’s 462,840 square kilometres of land.
Our Government will endeavor to unlock our potentials in agriculture business by doing the following:
*Do an agriculture map to know which part of our country has what potentials;
*Build enabling infrastructures systematically so we not only develop agriculture but enable efficient delivery of produces to the markets;
*Structure our families into SMEs and corporatives that can be linked to SME and business support facilities Government will establish with financial institutions;
*Linking Government tertiary student loan schemes to parents and guidance who must be involved in agriculture;
*Put price stabilisation facility to ensure our people earn respectable income for their investments in agriculture;
*Migrate family agribusiness into SMEs, migrate SMEs into bigger business and ensure that agriculture has finished products (secondary industry) of world standard that is exported;
*Link agriculture businesses to special economic zones we designating nationwide to ensure agriculture industries grows; and
*Lastly but not the least amongst other things we will do, increase our support to research and science and study facilities to provide data, statistics and studies for further improvement in Agriculture and economy or our country in general.
Challenges before us as a nation remains so big and against a backdrop of growing population above 3% every year, with dilapidated infrastructure and non-expanded economic base, where revenue remains small against growing expenditure demands;
I am here to lobby for imagination, innovation and invigoration of talents that are found in the pool intellects in our country.
I visited University of Goroka on 17th of September after the 44th flagraising to ring home a point that country is not grown only from Waigani and Port Moresby and politicians.
Work for us must go on all time.
I commended UOG for their dedication to the course of training teachers and I lobbied for them to train quality teachers and offer better recommendations as to how we improve least-costly but top-quality education to our country.
I am again here at Unitech not by coincidence but by choice.
Unitech is an institution that has contributed immensely to our country.
Borrowing from Chancellor Dame Kekedo’s words, you train mostly "blue collar" workforce that contributes directly to the economy, as employees or a growing number of employers gained their education, training or experiences here.
I thank Chancellor, Pro VCs, Vice Chancellor, council members, faculty members past and present , auxiliary staff past and present, and all friends of Unitech.
I also thank institutions like SPISARD and others who continue to collaborate with Unitech to offer program and solutions to many inherent needs we have in PNG.
I thank SPISARD and Unitech for this partnership, especially when iam an advocate on the propensity of our country in agriculture.
In world of eight billion people growing into 10 billion into the future, in a country of eight million people growing into 10 million soon, agriculture means food security and food security is economic security.
Just like the then known world running to Egypt 4000 years ago due to famine, just like agriculture revolution nations transformed into industrialisation in the 1900s.
Contemporary global issues like population increase, climate change and unpredictable catastrophic weather in our Asia-Pacific region will mean we are not short of markets for agriculture produces both locally and offshore.
This university is one of the foundational cornerstones of our country.
As Government, we are here to give you our best endeavors in the context of equitable budget support to all our key economic enabling sectors that we will support 2020 and beyond.
But I lobby your support, you have the intelligence and talent to be innovative.
Look for ways to use resources you have in your schools and the university to be self-sustaining and what Government gives you can be complementary.
We can be the richest black Christian nation on earth where no child is left behind.
I believe agriculture holds the key to the economic and social formula we searching for.
It’s time we take back our country by all of us working together from where ever God has placed us, deploying our time and talent to the best of our abilities and ceasing from corruption and complacency.
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape, MP, will support his Treasurer Ian Ling Stuckey, MP, in the delivery of correct economic numbers that has been debated as of lately in preparation for 2019 supplementary budget and 2020 budget.
The Prime Minister made this statement in response to former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s criticism lately of the numbers that Treasurer is now putting out.
Prime Minister Marape said the numbers are based on works that the Government's due diligence team has been working on openly, in collaboration with IMF and whole of treasury, including the World Bank and others.
“The former Prime Minister cannot deny that many of us including me as the then Finance Minister, protested not only on the budget policies but on expenditure priorities of budgets under his Prime Ministership starting 2015, when his priorities shifted away from greater coalition interest," the Prime Minister said.
"The latest was my protest last November when I had no knowledge of budget frameworks, yet I was forced to support that budget," he said.
The Prime Minister said these were some of the issues that contributed to his resignation as the Finance Minister.
"What the present Treasurer is currently doing is to fully ascertain our present economic conditions for us to offer solutions to take our country out of the present conditions," Prime Minister Marape said.
"When I was Finance Minister previously, I was part of the government that deliberately entered into debt financing so we could do economic projects, but along the way, the areas of investments influenced by the then Prime Minister differed against some of our opinions, and these investments now add up to our present debts.
"Whether it is at K27 billion or above K30 billion the fact is that it is still very high and possibly trends above requirements of Fiscal Responsibility Act.
"Government under my leadership want to establish where the true economic position of our country is and then put forward policies and programs in both 2019 and 2020 that should take us out of this mess.” Prime Minister Marape said.
He said today is not the time to continue the blame game but to accept the status quo the country is faced with and to mitigate to rescue the country.
“Our Government will initiate immediate cost cutting on projects and expenditures of no significance to the economy, invest in economic stimulant projects, and source lower cost loans in the immediate to refinance our debts as well as provide budget support," Prime Minister Marape revealed of the Government's plan of action.
“In the medium term, we will look to gain better from our resources by unbundling resources through resource law changes and policy and regime shifts, including policing better our tax collection systems."
In the meantime, Prime Minister encourages the country to have positive view on our future, and look into how every citizens and every national businesses can venture into businesses to help contribute to the country’s future.
The Prime Minister said the Government will endeavour to make public sector and its state businesses effective and productive, and encourage the private sector to grow in business to support our economy.
