Lae City Authority

A lease agreement was signed today at the outdoor stadium between the Lae City Authority chief executive officer, Robin Calistus, and the Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation CEO, Albert Veratau.

Member for Lae and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, has always stressed on restoring Lae to its glory days; the days when families can enjoy the city and its benefits without fearing for their safety.

To be hosted at the Lae Botanical Gardens, the LaeFest 2023 will have a series of traditional food, exotic cultural singsing, village life exhibitions, carving and weaving and SME arts & crafts.

For entry, children will pay K1 while adults pay K2.

Live music will be provided by Red Ink Tern, Reks Band, Aponge Masalai, Duaks, Ethnic DJ and Et Kalsa.

Residents wishing to book a stall can visit the old district headquarters at Huon Road, Top Town for more information.

The Lae City Authority says this is another industrial street road getting a much-needed facelift.

“It will be concreted,” said LCA.

“[A] Few months ago, we saw Sletfjord, another industrial street road adjacent to Erica, being concreted.

“Once work on Erica Street is completed, the two streets will complement each other well, making it convenient for business houses and industries such as Coca-Cola PNG to increase their productions while reducing cost in some areas of businesses.

“It’s one street at a time depending on funding availability.”

When presenting their new jerseys on Saturday at the Lae Yacht Club, Lae MP and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, commended them for their perseverance and said after much persuasion, he agreed to the Lae City Authority sponsoring the city’s “pride and joy”. 

This morning, the Lae Chamber of Commerce and Industry facilitated a breakfast session to update its members on the temporary facilities that will house vendors on Markham Road, next to Air Niugini, while construction begins in early 2024 for the two-storey facility.

Engaged to manage the design, construction and commissioning of the project is the Economic and Social Infrastructure Program (ESIP).

Member for Lae and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, said since the launch of the program on June 1st, 2020, K2 million had been allocated annually until this year.

“We’ve now increased it to K4 million to cater for the capacity,” he said.

“It’s a program that assists our mothers and widows and people who are a little bit hard up. It’s a two-part program. A lot of people don’t realise that we also train them in financial literacy.

“Most of them had never had bank accounts in their lives; we’ve opened it up.

The partnership, which will be trialed for a month, will see workers from the Lae Hand Up program be utilised for the upkeep of the market area, while Dulux will provide the necessary tools and equipment.

DuluxGroup PNG’s supply chain and operations manager, Frederick William Slavin, visited the Lae City Authority office on Thursday, August 11^th, where the acting LCA chief executive officer, Robin Calistus, briefed him on the Hand Up program.

The program aims to provide safe and reliable transportation to all students from elementary up to secondary school for both private and public schools in the city.

LCA said there will be pick up in the mornings and drop off in the afternoons at designated spots.

This will ensure that parents and guardians can have some breathing space to save money while students will not be late for teaching and learning.

“They will be at school on time so academic performance can increase,” said LCA.

All candidates and political parties are required to pay a one-off fee of K500 to the Lae City Authority to put up their posters, banners and billboards around Lae City boundaries.

LCA has so far received payments from some candidates, and is reminding others to do so at their earliest to avoid any inconvenience.

Fees are to be paid at the LCA cash office at the ground floor of Morobe Haus, which was formerly known as Vele Rumana.

Failure to do so will result in LCA removing the candidates’ posters, banners and billboards.

LCA has awarded the contract to local contractor, R&Sons Construction Limited, saying they did quality work on the Eriku street roads.

The road works in Tent City area are in phases. Phase 1, which is currently underway, is from Kaiser Bus Stop inward.

“Funding is from additional infrastructure grant from the government, sourced by local MP and Lands Minister John Rosso, and working in partnership with Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu,” said LCA.