PNG National Research Institute

The Discussion Paper No.192 titled Papua New Guinea Governance Update 2021: Steady as she goes? The Report is authored by Graham Teskey, Tara Davda, Abbas Maroof and Prashanth Parthiban.

The Paper examines governance in PNG in comparison with seven other countries, including one Pacific Island nation at similar levels of development and with similar economic structures. The discussion paper is an important contribution to the continuing discussion about governance.

Papua New Guinea National Research Institute’s (PNG NRI) Acting Director Dr Osborne Sanida says Land is one of the major factors of production of goods and services.

“However, if the land is not accessible and put to good use, then landownership means little in terms of benefitting from the land by the landowners,” he said.

He said this at the launch of the Institute’s Discussion Paper No. 188 – Strategies to address challenges in customary land administration, governance and dispute resolution in Papua New Guinea.

This is according to a research done by PNG’s think tank institute; PNG National Research Institute (PNG NRI).

The purpose of the Work Permit System, under which non-citizens are employed in PNG’s private sector, is to benefit businesses and Papua New Guinean.

The report states that in practice, there have been few benefits for Papua New Guinean workers. In particular, little skills transfer has taken place.

Papua New Guinea researcher engaged with the PNG National Research Institute, Dr Thomas Webster says people need to understand that the Referendum is not about Independence.

Dr Webster said Independence is an option, but people need to understand it in the context of the Peace of Agreement.

The Civil War which started in 1988 on Bougainville lasted for almost a decade with more than 10 000 people killed, deterioration of infrastructure, no services and no schools for a decade of generations.

Peace negotiations leading to the Peace Agreement began in 1998 to 2001.

The Bougainville Referendum is an important national event with significant implications for both PNG and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville with June 19 2019 as the target date.

The Referendum is to determine whether ABG will gain independence or remain autonomous.

Following the launch of Bougainville Referendum Research Project to be carried out by the PNG NRI, Dr Webster said PNG needs to have good solid preparations for the Referendum.

He explained that good preparations will result in a good sound process Referendum and the outcome will be credible.

For this reason, Lewis Iwong, a research project officer under the Informal Economy Research Program at the PNG National Research Institute, took the lead in conducting a three-day survey to identify the challenges faced in private rental homes, particularly within residential areas.

This includes customary landowners of Tatana, Baruni, Roku, Kouderika, Porebada, Boera, Papa, and Lealea and business communities along the Fairfax Harbour starting with Puma at Napanapa, ending at Motukea and the Edai Township towards the PNG LNG Site.

The article report titled “Is Konebada Petroleum Park Authority a scam?” was written by Logea Nao, Belden Endekra and Lucy Hamago and published on April 2 2017.

The assistants participated in a survey that was conducted by the Institute, from December 7-16 last year.

With an aim to understand the dynamics of the informal sector economy in PNG, research assistants visited 10 main markets of Port Moresby, such as Gordon’s, Waigani and Konedobu, to interview the markets’ frequent vendors.

They were able to do this under the supervision of project supervisor Elizabeth Kopel and her team, which consisted of a consultant and less than 5 NRI cadets.

PNG National Research Institute (PNGNRI) aims to transform its Waigani Campus into the PNG Knowledge Hub.

The hub will bring together a community of organisations, leaders, researchers, consultants, academics, government and private sector people. It will be focused in generating, processing, storing, transferring and applying knowledge.

NRI Director Dr Charles Yala said PNGNRI plans to start working on phase two which will be the refurbishment of the old library building.

The call made by NRI Director, Dr Charles Yala, follows the launching of the NRI’s latest report ‘Why are internet rates high in Papua New Guinea?’

“What is the role of the government? A player? A referee? A facilitator or a bit of each?” asks Dr Yala.

“Providing a clear answer to these set of questions will make the work of the regulators easy to define and for the businesses to be clear on their investment opportunities.