Central Provincial Government

The MoU now forms a pathway for Central Cocoa.

Governor Rufina Peter, newly appointed CBPNG CEO Jesse Anjen and Acting Secretary for Department of Agriculture and Livestock Brown Konabe, jointly opened the Cocoa Board Southern Regional Office on the third floor of Monian Tower in the Boroko central business district.

Upon the unveiling and ribbon-cutting formalities, Governor Peter highlighted that cocoa has a huge untapped potential in the Central Province and needs collaborative efforts to advance.

The payments are from the NCD Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected for January and February this year (2023).

Speaking during the presentation, Governor Parkop assured Governor Peter that NCDC is willing to give whatever that is due to the Central Government under the Law.

Governor Parkop said despite the court cases and other issues with the law, NCDC will continue to deliver to the Central people what is required.

“Education started here in Central Province because Missionaries came here in Central Province. In many ways we were fortunate and advanced unlike many parts of PNG. It was demonstrated in our development indicated in those times,” said Governor Peter at today’s dedication service.

“As a province here we did build assets, human administration, assets in business with our political leaders and over the years to make sure Central Province was the best performing. Unfortunately, over the years we had leaders that sold our assets limiting us to limited internal revenue.

General Secretary of PNG Council of Churches, Reverend Roger Joseph, shared a sermon about partnership in the work of public servants and how partnership is rooted in God.

The theme for the dedication service is ‘Where God guides, He provides. Diverse but in Unity we can transform Central Province’.

The theme for the dedication service is ‘Where God guides, He provides. Diverse but in Unity we can transform Central Province’.

Provincial Administrator, Francis Koaba said the theme should be considered by individual officers in the sector and taken seriously in order to move forward.

Governor for Central Province, Rufina Peter, acknowledged the work of the officers in the sector.

He raised queries this week during the Central House of Assembly meeting where the provincial budget was passed.

“In the 2020 budget, we budgeted from the Central provincial appropriation, out of your PSIP the two roads in my electorate need work, the Hiritano highway, which is the ring road that runs off from Agevairu all the way to Aropokina and onto the Bereina Junction to Veifa’a road which is a 12 kilometer road.”

Isoaimo stressed that this delay is not a good look for the provincial administration.

Following the passing of the 2022 milestone K365 million budget, the women expressed their distaste at why their allocated funds of K256,000 for this year was not given to them as allocated and why the Central Province Council Women representative did not raise this during the budget presentation.

Central Province Women in Agriculture President, Freda Magini, said they are still waiting for the allocated funding and the new budget has been passed.

The total amount of the budget was K365, 090,330 with the theme, ‘Lightening Burden Through Growth Creation’, in line with the National Government’s Theme.

The biggest chunk of the budget goes to provincial headquarters, districts and local level governments with K278,819,330.

Other budget allocations are:

Acting Provincial Administrator, Francis Koaba said the undertaking comes under the Central Provincial Government’s tourism pillar.

“As part of the heritage program, we want to revive all the historical churches.  Some as old as 100 years such as the Yule Island Cathedral. The first missionaries landed on the island in 1884, 4^th of July where the church building was erected. Today it is still there in its purest form,” said Mr Koaba.

Apart from the architectural value of these buildings, they present values, cultures and history.

At the provincial assembly meeting, Governor Agarobe stated, “Our people have walked this land for hundreds of years and will continue to do so as there’s nowhere else to go for us Central people. We are already home. Unfortunately for us that very basic right enshrined in our Constitution on our freedom of movement has now been compromised as we, the indigenous land owners, cannot move around freely anymore on our own land.