Governor Powes Parkop

He took the National Government to task yesterday during parliament sitting to unlock unused land tenures around the country through the National Housing Corporation and the Department of Lands and Physical Planning.

Governor Parkop said vacant State lands must be freed up to settlers, public servants, individuals, and corporate citizens who have the financial capacity to develop them.

Governor Parkop said K7million has been allocated, however the relevant agencies are slow in setting up the office.

He made this statement following the harassment of a woman in public by a crowd of rowdy men outside the Gordons Bookmakers area in Port Moresby, over the Easter Weekend.

“The strategy was adopted in 2016 and launched in 2017. It is only this year that the Government allocated K7 million to start rolling out the strategic plan after so much advocacy and push.

A number of families had lost their homes to arson following retaliation over the death of a young man in Baruni Village last month.

Governor Parkop reaffirmed the city’s commitment to supporting the families who had their homes torched.

He assured the affected families that lost a family member and those that have lost their homes, that the city would step in to mediate the peace process and assist in building new homes for those that had theirs destroyed. 

Governor Parkop, a strong advocate for the rights of the people of West Papua said it was a milestone despite PM Marape raising it in a very diplomatic and subtle way.

Prime Minister Marape told world leaders at the UNGA: “While commending the UN on the peace efforts in Papua New Guinea. I would also like to recall the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ decision in 2019 and the outstanding visit by the UN Human Rights mechanism to address the alleged human rights concerns in our neighbourhood.

He said NCDC has already dressed the city’s street light poles along selected major roads in the city with the National Flag.

“Despite the limitation and challenges in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, we must be reminded to remain united as one city and one people with one future to celebrate our resilience, celebrate our pride and significance of our national sovereignty of our city of 1000 tribes.

Governor Parkop said, NCDC has prospered over the years through other sources of funding, and not just on government funding.

NCD Governor Powes Parkop wants to put an end to the assumption that NCD gets more funding than other provinces.                                       

Governor Parkop says NCDC’s annual budget from the national government for 2020 was K304, 101, 000 and is easily comparable to other provinces with similar population size like Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Hela and Southern Highlands who got a bigger budget allocation compared to NCD.

He made this remarks on the occasion of receiving additional masks from a local business company on Wednesday 23^rd September.

Eliseo Trading Limited donated 400,000 facemasks, valued at K800,000 to the National Capital District Commission. This gesture has increased the company's total facemasks donation to 600,000

Previously Eliseo Trading also donated 200,000 facemasks to National Capital District police and other frontline workers.

In a media conference on Wednesday 12^th of August, he applauded the government for uplifting the city lockdown.  He said the NCD Task Force welcomes Prime Minister James Marape’s decision and one that they have been pushing for the last weeks.

Governor Parkop said that it is not an easy decision to allow life to go on under the new normal and citizens must adhere to the measures put in place.

“This is not an easy decision, it took a lot of courage and conviction to make this decision.”

Governor Powes Parkop believes this will lift the standard of education and will also deal with imminent problems currently faced by schools in Port Moresby

Schools in Port Moresby, if not the country as a whole, continue to face issues that are long overdue.

These problems include poor school facilities and infrastructure, shortage of desks, the high ratio of teachers to students and housing problems for teachers.

Governor Parkop says NCDC stands ready to work with the NCD Education division to address some of these issues.

NCD Governor Powes Parkop announced this yesterday in the presence of the acting City Manager, Ravu Frank, Housing and Urbanisation Minister Justin Tkatchenko and contractors manning the Eight-Mile betelnut wholesale market, which will be converted into a vegetable market space.

The plan to convert the betelnut market is in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Urbanisation and National Housing Corporation.