Papua New Guinea has enough natural resources to provide its people with ‘green infrastructure’ to boost electricity coverage.
Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Naoyuki Yoshino, said with the amount of natural resources at our disposal, the country can have all Papua New Guineans access electricity within five years.
Yoshino is in the country for a two-day regional conference focused on ‘Green Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction in the Pacific Islands’.
He said during a media conference that because many PNG communities are scattered and far way from each other, and given the rugged terrain of the country, smaller ‘green infrastructure’ projects such as hydropower, wind and solar power are options to utilise.
Yoshino said the effects of this will see a growth in economic activity for the smaller communities and a better standard of living.
“I hope this conference will be a way to guide this country and this region to have profitable and sustainable growth and the people are much happier,” he said.
“Papua New Guinea and this region have a lot of natural resources but are not utilised very well.
“Solar power and wind power can be developed to supply electricity to the local community,” added Yoshino.