Resource

As delegates from around the world meet in Port Moresby for the APEC Food Security Summit, communities across PNG are benefiting from a range of agricultural initiatives developed and implemented by the resources industry to boost agriculture in project areas.

Recently, the Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture trained 39 women from Hengambu, Yanta, Babua and Wagang villages in Morobe Province on food preparation. The training was conducted by the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) in Lae.

Speaking at the Papua New Guinea Business Update in Townsville, Australia, earlier this month, Kassman showcased how PNG’s resource sector has played a vital role in the country’s economic development, with PNG being one of the few countries in the world where mining and petroleum projects provide socio-economic opportunities to the local areas they operate in.

During his speech to guests from both Australia and PNG, including Charles Abel, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer of Papua New Guinea, Kassman highlighted the following:

It recently received just over K23 million to purchase 11 office units at the new Koki waterfront office complex area and another cheque of K10 billion for its restoration programs.

This means that resource owners don’t have to turn to government to do their offshore bidding for them but can allow the PNG Cultural Resource Incorporation Limited to negotiate on their behalf directly linking resource owners and investors on a single platform.

Act Now!, in its paper ‘CUSTOMARY LAND REGISTRATION: Too Dangerous To Touch’, says once dispossessed, people can no longer rely on their land to provide the necessities of life.

“They are forced to become dependent on money and they start to lose their culture and identity.

“Attempts by government to move people off their land and give control to outsiders is ideologically driven and supported by the mistaken belief land needs to be ‘freed up’ and given over to large-scale projects in order to bring ‘development’.