Oro Governor Gary Juffa has described the hosting of the 14th Mining conference in Sydney, Australia as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
In an exclusive interview with Loop PNG, Juffa said we have facilities in the country that can facilitate the conference rather than Sydney.
“We now have facilities to host such conferences and the government must make a conservative effort to make use of the facilities in the country.”
He said such conferences will only make sense if it is being hosted in the country as the resources and landowners are in the country and can attend.
However, Juffa said if there are other reasons that the conference was always held in Sydney must have been economical and not to satisfy those attending especially large number of government members of parliament.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Don Polye has called on the mining and petroleum companies, the government and other stakeholders at the Mining conference to consider two main agendas.
Polye said whilst discussing the core issues affecting them, they should also advocate on reviewing the Sovereign Wealth Fund and creating sustainable programs using the tax credit schemes for people living in mining and petroleum areas around the country.
“The SWF has been mishandled by the government when it altered the original version under the world best practice Santiago principles.
“They should also create sustainable programs like tourism, SMEs and agriculture in the mining and petroleum areas so that when the resources are depleted, our people there can turn to these sectors to sustain themselves,” said Polye.
He is calling on them to advocate on the management of the country’s wealth through very sound macro-economic policy of the government.
The 14th Mining conference was officially opened by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill today at the Sydney’s Hilton Hotel and will end on Wednesday.