He will be leaving PNG with many good memories.
The European Union Ambassador has spent a total of eight years in the country, and will be leaving on the 31st of August.
Ambassador Ioannis Giogkarakis-Argyropoulos started his career in PNG from 1992-1996 as a young official from the European Commission.
“And I left the country with very nice memories, and very nice projects that still serve the population,” he said. “I’m thinking about the rural water supply program that we launched last time, I’m thinking also about the Unitech buildings that we built and are still educating the new leaders of Papua New Guinea and I’m also thinking about a lot of infrastructural projects like the Ramu Highway, Passam to Tuonumbu, Kimbe to Talasea and the Highlands Highway. But this is long history.
“And in the last four years, I came as an ambassador.”
Ambassador Giogkarakis-Argyropoulos expressed his delight at the recent launch of an ambitious program that the EU has ever financed. He said the program supports rural entrepreneurship and investment and trade in PNG’s remote areas where they try to take advantage of the wealth and potential of PNG’s resources, focusing on agriculture in particular.
“Papua New Guinea is a country with great potential,” he stated. “Potential that is still largely untapped. And the European Union is keen to support every effort, in every direction, to improve the capacity of Papua New Guineans to take advantage for the sustainable management of their wealth and resources.”
Ambassador Giogkarakis-Argyropoulos will be returning to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, where he will continue to maintain his relationship with the Pacific in his new role, adding his expertise and knowledge of PNG and her neighbours will be of benefit in strengthening relationships and promoting the partnership further from the other side of the world.
(Outgoing EU Ambassador, Ioannis Giogkarakis-Argyropoulos)