Buin

Following negotiations with aggrieved service providers, local authorities, and police, the office resumed operations, paving the way for the upcoming combatant’s by-election in South Bougainville to progress.

Buin Police Station Commander Inspector John Popui hailed the reopening as positive news for the people, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts at the local level for governance and law and order. The reopening marked the OBEC officers' return to duty preparing for the imminent by-election.

Secretary for the ABG Department of Treasury and Finance, Johny Auna, said the regional and district rollout program began early this year with the aim of decentralising functions and bringing financial services closer to the people.

Through this, the Department has established their services in Central and South Bougainville in the first quarter of this year and government officers at the district level now have ease-of-access to financial services.

Minister Mirisim visited the region of Bougainville on Monday (28th February 2022) to witness the re-opening of the Buin airstrip, which has been closed for the last 25 years after the 1997 Bougainville Crisis. There, he also presented the cheque on behalf of Prime Minister James Marape.

The K1 million national government funding, under the freight subsidy scheme, will go towards subsidising the freight cost of the cocoa farmers in Buin.

Our band came out from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Ministry, where all of us performed for this ministry and we decided to create this band to support the work of peace inside Buin and throughout Bougainville.

All members of the band have experienced a dark stride in their lives and today with the guiding hand of church leaders, we continue to live to inspire others with our testimonies.

ABG’s Minister for Community Development Jacob Toke has welcomed the hosting of this important occasion.

The conference which brings together key national and sub-national financial officials seeks to enhance knowledge and understanding of financial management reform and best practices at the sub-national level.

The Minister for Finance, James Marape, and Chief Secretary to the National Government Ambassador, Isaac Lupari, and Secretary for Finance Dr Ken Ngangan are amongst the senior officials from the National and Provincial Treasuries who will attend.

Members of a community in Buin, including school children, were present on Wednesday to celebrate the completion of the major project to seal the main town roads in Buin, laying the foundation for greater development in the South Bougainville region.

The K11.5 million project to upgrade Buin’s town roads was completed ahead of schedule and within budget.

The newly-sealed roads are engineered to take account of the heavy rainfall in the region and will provide a great boost to the local economy.

A village chief from the Konnou area of Buin, South Bougainville, told Loop PNG that the awareness for the referendum needs to be more aggressive now.

Joe Patuai said: “There needs to be more funding put into these awareness programs and people need to travel the full length of this island, even into places where service doesn’t go to, awareness has to go.

Member for Makis in the Autonomous Bougainville Government John Vianney  led a delegation to his constituency last week.

The delegation  also included Regional Member Joe Lera, ABG Agriculture Minister and member for north Nasioi Nicholas Daku and other technical officers from the departments.

Lera  attended the opening of the Poreburu village assembly and the ground-breaking ceremony of the Malautu Heath Centre in the Makis constituency.

That’s because his official residence in Kubu estate at Buka is in need of a major maintenance and uplift, since it was never maintained.

That means the Bougainville executive council (BEC) meetings will all be conducted in Buin and all executive matters will be sorted out in Buin.

A team from the Bougainville technical services division is already in Buin town in southern Bougaiinville, sorting out the residence which the President will be living in till his house in repaired.