Asian Development Bank

This was revealed by the Minister for State Enterprise William Duma after East Sepik Governor Alan Bird queried where the money was and why it was not used to address the ongoing power woes in the country including Wewak town.

Bird said Wewak town has been in the dark for 18 days now and wanted a short-term solution to the power problems there.

Providing a background of the situation on the ground, Bird said a total of six gen sets have failed with a new gen set not working. This has led to power blackouts affecting schools, hospitals, banks, etc.

The Government is also moving to open up the southern part of West New Britain with a K50 million infrastructural support over the next four years to 2025 by linking Kimbe to Kandrian-Gloucester district.

These investments are part of the massive Connect PNG, an infrastructure development programme by the Government to take focus of roads development out of Port Moresby and into the rural areas of Papua New Guinea.

The ADB has been involved with PNG’s development for 50 years, and is PNG’s largest multilateral funding partner.

The comments were in the context of a meeting on Wednesday between Prime Minister James Marape, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey, Finance Minister John Pundari, Works Minister Michael Nali, Health Minister Jelta Wong and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director, David Hill.

The support includes loans, guarantees, and letters of credit aimed to overcome constraints to private sector investment in the renewables sector.

The ADB says the Pacific Renewable Energy Programme will support an estimated 5 separate renewable energy projects in its Pacific developing member countries over a 5 year period.

"The program will help to build urgently needed capacity for energy sector expansion and private sector interest in clean energy projects in the region," said the Director General of the ADB's Pacific Department Carmela Locsin

The reception was overwhelming as people cheered and clapped their hands at the airport tarmac to witness the ground breaking ceremony after the airport was closed in June this year following a civil unrest that saw the burning of a Dash 8 Air Niugini aircraft.

The Mendi Airport Upgrade project was launched by Minister for Civil Aviation and Kandep MP Alfred Manase, and Member for Mendi-Munihu and Works & Implementation Minister, Michael Nali.

Minister Manase told the over 2,000 people that work on the upgrade of the airport will commence without delay.

In its latest Pacific Economic Monitor the Bank said changes were needed now to mitigate disaster risks to improve the region's economic growth and development prospects,

The ADB's director general of its Pacific Department, Carmela Locsin, said many Pacific countries had taken steps to improve resilience but she said more innovative approaches and greater institutional capacity could help the response.

They inspected the Bialla Health Centre today and were impressed on the scope of work done by the project team.

Apart from Kimbe, Bialla appears to be the only district town in the country that is growing in-terms of continuous investments in hotel and apartments, besides the rapid rise in shops, opening up of banking services and other business houses.

With such developments, health is of paramount importance to the administration of Governor Sasindran Muthuvel.

The Pacific Island countries to be supported by the new fund include the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, the Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

These countries face developmental issues such as small populations, limited resources, remoteness and vulnerability to natural disasters.

The Pacific Energy Update 2017 provides a comprehensive overview of ADB’s energy-focused work in the Pacific. The publication highlights the impacts of ADB-supported energy initiatives completed in 2016 and ongoing in 2017, while providing details of what ADB hopes to achieve in the energy sector in the future.

Earthquakes can happen at any time. Typhoons, cyclones, floods and volcanic eruptions are among the many natural disasters that occur around us and there is a huge difference between being prepared and not being prepared when a natural disaster strikes.

Japan, like PNG, experiences earthquakes, floods from rain, cyclones and volcanic eruptions but it has changed its awareness of disaster preparedness and is targeting children with disaster education.