Ian Ling-Stuckey

This is according to Minister for Treasury, Ian Ling-Stuckey when these points were the centre of discussion between the Treasurer and Head of Telstra, Andy Penn and Telstra staff in Melbourne, Australia.

“Around the globe, it is recognised that modern telecommunications can connect people in ways simply not possible using traditional land-line phone services. A good, fast data connection can allow our small and medium-sized enterprises to reach out to markets throughout the world without having to go through middlemen,” Mr Ling-Stuckey said.

Increased investment flows into PNG to help grow the economy, was the key item of discussion. 

Mr Ling-Stuckey said it was also an opportunity to relay the Marape-Basil Government’s gratitude for the strong support from Australia in dealing with the devastating health and economic impacts of COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea.

“A key example of this is the planned investment by Telstra into PNG. 

“There was agreement that this major investment could serve as an example for other Australian companies making major future investments. 

Ling-Stuckey was at BPNG on Monday to witness the swearing in of the new Bank of PNG board members.

The new members are acting Governor, Benny Popoitai, David Toua, Ulato Avei, James Gore, Des Yaninen and Richard Kuna.

In its first business of the day, the new board elected David Toua as its interim chairman. 

During the event, the Minister said the current review was timely, given that good governance in most countries suggest that laws should generally be reviewed after ten years, not twenty two years, as was the current case.

He said this is creating anxiety and doubt for a free and fair election in New Ireland.

Ling-Stuckey said that there is also video evidence of public service staff claiming to be stopping a shipment of official documents for the 2022 elections, including enrolment forms that were enroute to Kavieng.

“The same leaders of our provincial government, who profess good governance and honest leadership as part of their party motto, are entertained like they have done nothing wrong.

This assurance was conveyed at a Community Development Forum (CDF), where the member met with mothers from the East Coast Tigak Mainland Constituency at Kasselok Village, ward 4 in Tikana LLG on Saturday.

He advised the forum that two options were provided by the KDDA to assist women on their journey to become self-reliant. The first option was seed capital provided as a grant and the second option was over K1 million provided to the New Ireland Savings & Loans Society, which would implement loans to micro SMEs to be repaid over time.

President of Murat LLG, Edwin Maigen has accused Ling-Stuckey of using district funds to feed National Alliance (NA) voters.

He has also brushed aside accusations made by Kavieng MP, Ian Ling-Stuckey who accused the New Ireland Government of lying about funding constraints due to Lihir Royalties diverted to the districts.

“We have no COVID-19 pandemic in New Ireland nor do we have a disaster-stricken province but millions of kina of people’s money is locked in to feed NA voters”.

He was responding to queries raised by Governor for East Sepik, Allan Bird in Parliament yesterday.

Minister Ling-Stuckey said there must be cooperation between banks, BPNG and the Government to address issues stemming from certain anti-money laundering and fraud policies that prevents Papua New Guineans from depositing large sums of cash.

Governor Bird said: “Our small people are being harshly dealt with by the banking system. They are not allowed to deposit K1000 in cash.”

The New Ireland Assembly voted out its open members during its meeting on Wednesday the 17th of March, citing numerous absences from assembly meetings.

It was claimed, both members were absent on Wednesday 9^th September 2020, Wednesday 16^th September 2020, Wednesday 23^rd December 2020 and Wednesday 17^th March 2021.

Treasurer and Kavieng MP, Ian Ling-Stuckey, made this statement when presenting a subsidy of K100,000 to New Ireland students at Lae’s University of Technology.

He also briefed students on the KDDA and New Ireland Provincial Government budgets, and educated them on the Marape Government’s Public Investment Program (PIP) budget.

During his visit, Minister Ling-Stuckey met with the University’s senior executive management team to discuss budgetary matters of the institution and do a budgetary presentation.

The university management also had the opportunity to discuss its five-year strategic plans and present a report on its infrastructural plans and budgetary requirements in alignment to the University’s vision and mission.

Minister Ling-Stuckey announced a funding commitment of K250,000 on behalf of the Marape-Basil Government at the end of the meeting.