New Ireland develops model tourism village

New Ireland has a first tourism model village.

The provincial government has recognized Lossuk Village in Ward Seven of the Tikana Local Level Government area as the First Tourism Model Village.

Governor Sir Julius Chan says developing tourism village concepts endeavours to address social ills that mostly cause law and order issues.

Acknowledging that half the population are young people, he said immediate attention of the government is to contain abuse of alcohol, illegal home brewed alcohol which described as poisonous, and marijuana.

The concept will enable the village to tap into the economic benefits of tourism, agriculture, fisheries and forestry through the village planning committees in wards.

At the the local level governments level they will develop small businesses in communities to sustain and empower themselves with the youth population taking the lead.

The New Ireland Government assisted with K10,000 to construct ten VIP toilets which were completed by the youths and launched two days before Christmas last year under the New Ireland Government’s WaSH project.   

The Lossuk Tourism Model Village concept is based around the traditional New Ireland hausbois’ but includes a central meeting house and eight hausbois constructed through sweat equity valued around K50,000 by the youths.

The provincial government has directed the New Ireland Tourism Authority and the provincial administration to rollout the project to the remaining nine LLGs in the province.

The Hausboi at Lossuk is also captured in the design of the new Provincial Assembly building which is currently under construction.  

The provincial government has appointed Hon. Demas Kavavu who has been closely involved in the establishment of the Cultural and Tourism villages to involved in the roll out of the concept.

Logistical costs a challenge for betel nut trade in Bougainville

Betel nut can be a lucrative business for most west coast Bougainvilleans from the Kunua district.

But logistical challenges are costing them a lot and the little they could earn selling betel nut in Buka has been able to just keep them a float.

Evelyn Sinat,39,  and Martin Sibo,53, are two among hundreds of betel nut traders who travel into Buka daily and they are suppliers of the famous huge betel nuts from Bougainville.

Martin Sibo,53, and Evelyn Sinat, 39.

Sibo is married with four children and he traded betel nut in the last 18 years just to make ends meet for his immediate and extended family.

The whole trade has been somewhat little rewarding but he had been content, this was able to sustain him day by day.

He said he sells a bag at K80 and his return boat transport cost was K60 apart from the cost of each bag at K10.

Sinat does betel nut trade occasionally and said if demand was high and supply was low, she could sell a bag for K100 or worst K50.

When we spoke to her, she had seven bags.

She said the retailers at Buka bargain with them often and most times they lose, going back to their remote Kunua disappointed.

Married to Kavieng, Sinat said there were betel nut plantations high in the mountains of Kunua, in the middle lowlands and on the coast.

Transport to Buka though is really a pain.

She accounted they also pay carriers K10 to carry a bag of betel nut from the inland about 2 hours walk to the coast before catching a boat to Buka.

From betel but she was able to pay for school fees.

Her plight is for the government to afford them reliable and less expensive transport to markets and really develop her region.

They needed apart from road and good sea transport, mobile communication, health and education services.

New Ireland Completes Election for LLG Presidents

New Ireland Province is the first in the country to complete its LLG Elections with the last two LLG's Murat and Nimamar swearing in their Presidents on Friday 9th August.

The confirmed President's are as follows:

Kavieng District

Lavongai LLG – Mathew Makapa

Tikana LLG – Sammy Missen

Kavieng Urban – Sikal Kelep

Murat LLG – Edwin Maigen

Namatanai District

Tanir LLG – Felix Kaltubim

Konoagil – Issac Tosel

Matalai – Augustine Topi

Namatanai – Joshua Takin

Nimamar LLG – Stanley Tunut

Sentral NIU Ailan – Ben Sakbua

Attending the swearing in of the Murat LLG President in Kavieng, Governor Sir Julius praised the work of the Provincial Election Steering Committee led by Provincial Administrator Lamiller Pawut, Acting District Administrator David Lens, Autonomy Director Ricky Fugonto and Director for Legislative and Executive services Ao Ure.

( l to r )  Ricky Fugonto, Ao Ure, David Lens,  

Lamiller Pawut and r Sir Julius Chan.

Sir Julius also commended CEO's and Directors of the New Ireland Government for going beyond their job descriptions and taking part in the running of the Elections.

"We do things not because it is easy, but because it is difficult. We have proven to the rest of PNG that we can run one day polling successfully, on time and on a budget of half a million. I applaud you all for making these elections a success. You can be proud that you did it during your time," said Sir J.

The New Ireland Province is now aiming to replicate the one-day style polling during the 2022 National Elections.

At the same time the NIPG is adamant on taking up the responsibility to update the common rolls to stop occurrences of names missing during future Elections.

Sir J called on all the newly elected presidents to play leading roles at the LLG level along with all the Ward Members so service delivery can be felt in the community.

The New Ireland Government has allocated K200, 000 for all Local Level Government's and a further K30, 000 to individual wards with the exception of Tanir, Konoagil, Mussau and Lavongai who will receive K40, 000 because of their Geographical locations. This goes in line with the NIPG's policy of " The further you are the more we care."

The New Ireland Government is spearheading a number of High Impact projects through out the Province this includes the Unity Trans Island road, which will be officially opened on the 15th of August. Work on the 32 km Mussau ring road is progressing with its completion set for December and there are road works on the West Coast Kabunut to Palabong road and on Tanir.

Sir J also reaffirmed his vision of turning Boliu High School into a secondary school, which would allow for Seventh Day Adventists from other provinces to attend.

" To Govern is to choose, and the wealth of the people must be in the hands of the people," said Sir J when explaining that his Government had now engaged a Robin Hood style of leadership to take back funding from the National Government and hand it back to the people, thus the mission for Greater Autonomy.

 -New Ireland Provincial Government Media

Government to address issues of unattached officers on pay roll

Govt to address issue of Unattached officers on pay –roll 

The Minister for Public Service Honourable Westly Nukundi Nukundj has initiated the process of fixing the ongoing issue of Pay Roll over –run that has been a concern for past and present Governments. Last Friday (26 July 2019) the Minister demanded answers from the management team of the Department of Personnel Management (DPM) regarding positions and pay for all government departments and state services agencies.

He said the government’s biggest worry is that there are 6070 plus unattached officers on government pay roll and that amounts to 260 to 270 million kina every year.

“We want to find out where the cause is. What the Government aims to achieve is that one person gets paid for doing one job for one position(PPP). The Government is emphasising on the PPP concept, that is what we want to achieve”, said the Minister.

The Minister said it was not as if the Government is trying to cut down on the number of public servants however, it is seeking answers as to why we have unattached officers and in which particular departments and agencies. And if they are not participating in effective service delivery, why are we still keeping them on pay roll.

“I want the management team to furnish the following information before close of business of Monday the 29th of July 2019. A list of all unattached officers who are on government payroll in all departments, provincial governments and State Services Agencies,” said the Minister in a memo.

Minister Nukundj said all this information should be categorised into those that are over the age of 60 and due for retirement and those that have been suspended for over 3 months.

“There are also instances where two or more people are being employed under one position and that is another category. It should also be categorised into those who have been medically unfit for over 3 months and the number of positions approved against current numbers employed, “said the Minister.

Minister Nukundj also wanted to know the number of new recruits in government departments and agencies not on government payroll.

He said the Government was not necessarily trying to reduce cost but rather establish a number that is effectively performing its duties against a position that the government pays.


He asked DPM to furnish this information for all the different categories for each department and state services agency.

Parliament to ratify wreck removal convention

Parliament has to ratify the Nairobi Convention on wreck removal.

This would give the National Maritime Safety Authority more power to compel shipping organizations dispose off their wreckage parked around shores and rusting away.

These wreckage are maritime environment safety hazards for everyone.

The Wreck Removal Convention was adopted at an International Maritime Organisation Diplomatic Conference in Nairobi in 2007 and entered into force on 14 April 2015.

Executive Manager on Maritime Administration Captain Graham Proud said until that is done, shipping organization can make their tasks daunting.

“You just got to keep pushing it,” he said.

“We are working on legislations, it’s called the Nairobi convention and that enables us to ensure that the ship owners dispose off their wreckage properly.”

“We are going through that process now.”

So far their registrar through their environment division is developing a registry of the wrecked vessels, taking photographs and noting who the owners are.

“There’s 48 on the list so far,” he said.

NMSA ensures that before disposal, the ships are environmentally free in that there is no oil on board and then they tow them out to deep sea.

“They pay a bit of money,” he said and further clarified it was like running a car and if it stops working forever, anyone who owns it had the responsibility to move the car to a car wreckers place.

Captain Graham had been in the shipping business for 28 years before he arrived in PNG in 2000.

PNGDF soldier to study in the United States

Twenty-two year old Gareitz Rapola is the first Papua New Guinean to be a candidate in one of United States high ranking military service academies.

United States ambassador to PNG Catherine Ebert-Gray did the honour of presenting scholarship documents to Rapola at the National Museum in Port Moresby.

PNGDF Cadet (centre) Gareitz Rapola holding the baseball
cap and his scholarship certificates with US Ambassador
Catherin Ebert-Gray

He flies out of PNG a day later for a four year scholarship at the West Point service military-one of the oldest service militaries established by former US President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 and located along the Hudson River in New York.

“This is one of the first we’ve provided scholarship to in one of the service militaries,” Ambassador Ebert-Gray said.

In presenting the scholarship certificates she explained: “This certificate represents the future of our military relationship and the future of Papua New Guinea’s continuous development and excellence in security and in many other ways that our nation will be bonded for a generation or two to come.”

She also presented to Rapola his first baseball cap.

He is expected to graduate in 2023 with a Bachelors Degree after taking a curriculum that grades cadets' performance upon a broad academic program, military leadership performance, and mandatory participation in competitive athletics.

A soft spoken Rapola told the media it meant so much-something he didn’t dream about.

His father Colonel Nelson Rapola is the commanding officer for the 2RPIR based in Wewak.

He flew in from Wewak together with his wife to witness their son’s official announcement of the military scholarship.

Young Rapola completed grade 12 at Jubilee Catholic Secondary School in 2016 and was selected to do a course in Information Technology at the Institute of Business Studies University but turned it down and he joined the PNGDF as a cadet.

Ambassador Ebert-Gray said it’s very competitive to get into West Point as thousands and thousands of applications come from within and outside of the United States and only 1300 are selected every year.

“It’s going to be quite a long a great experience for him in the United States,” she said.

PNGDF Chief of Staff Captain Philip Polewara was on hand on behalf of PNGDF Commander Gilbert Toropo who was on an official trip overseas.

US Ambassador Catherine Ebert-Gray making her comments
as PNGDF Chief of Staff Cpt. Philip Polewara look on

He commended Rapola and already giving him peep talks on how to succeed in his military scholarship as he did training in the US as well.

Rapola was selected based on his academic, civic, military, and athletic history and he was successful among 34 highly qualified and competitive PNGDF applicants.

Big data for Papua New Guinea

Andrew Alex (left) and Benjamin Sarim are not there posing for the camera for themselves. 

They are advertising agents for telco company Digital who during the weekend launched a promotion for big data where users can triple or double data for as little as K2 for two hours and have unlimited access to YouTube. 

Internet data affordability in PNG remains quite expensive in the Pacific and such rates are encouraging for consumers as digital access to data and information becomes popular. 

When we got their picture they were holding the promotion standing against a road sign at a round about in Port Moresby. 

They had four pairs of agents facing the four roads that converge at this round about near the Gordon police barracks.