Basil in Alotau

National Planning Minister Sam Basil (right) arrived in Alotau, Milne Bay, yesterday for the provincial consultative meeting. He was met at the Gurney Airport by Kiriwina-Goodenough MP Jack Cameron. Officials attending the meeting included area managers, district administrators and council presidents and public servants. The meeting was opened yesterday by Alotau Mayor Gita Elliot with Basil giving the keynote address.

Government will ensure LLGs are equipped, says Basil

THE national government will ensure that local level government wards in the country are given necessary machinery and vehicles to facilitate the delivery of basic services, National Planning Minister Sam Basil says, The National reports.
He said last week in Kokopo, East New Britain, the government would focus on rural areas which currently lacked basic services.
Basil said LLG managers needed to have bulldozers which they must operate and maintain for at least 2,000 hours, and use them during bad weather to repair roads.
"This way LLGs can fix their roads and open up the market for people in rural areas," he said.
He said LLG managers must each have a police car and an officer who could train 10 locals as reservists to help monitor law and order in the communities.
Basil said police presence must be maintained in rural areas in light of recent land and social problems.
He said an ambulance should be stationed at the LLG level to help those seeking health services
Basil said the VSat system was important to provide communication so that LLGs could be hooked up to a fax machine and access internet to submit reports to the provincial and national governments when needed.
He said a tractor would allow the LLG to plough the land for agricultural use.
Basil said all these could be operated on a user-pay basis but the government must provide these equipment and vehicles so that people could enjoy better services.
He urged parliamentarians to wisely use the K20 million they received from the government on sustainable projects.

Bulolo Show on next month

By RIGGO NANGAN

THE new location of the flood-devastated sub-district headquarter of Mumeng , which is at the Zenag chicken farm land area in Bulolo district, will be the centre of attraction when the six local level governments (LLG) in the district will stage a cultural show during the Independence weekend next month. 

 A committee has been set in place to organise the show which is expected to lure cultural groups from as far as Waria LLG and the neighboring Menyamya district,  who will be participating to show their culture.

 The Buang yam culture will be one of several other cultures from the district that will be exhibited. Traditional string bands without the use of musical instruments like the factory -amde guitars and ukuleles, should astonish everyone.  

 On the commercial side of things, one of the highlights, if all goes well, will be a cross country motor cycle jaunt that will see riders taking off from Lae through the unattended short cut road to Buang from the turn off at Gabensis village.

Organising committee chairman, Stanley Komuts, says companies operating within the district as well as Lae, have been given the opportunity to display their products if they so wish.  

 Komuts said the formal Independence activities will held on Independence Day , which is Friday , September 16  while Saturday and Sunday will be occupied with cultural show exhibitions and the presentation on Sunday afternoon.

 He said gates will be free of charge and every cultural group, string bands and singsing groups will be  rewarded for taking part.

 The Bulolo cultural show, if successful, will become an annual event in the district in the years to come.

Basil wants natural resources to be processed downstream

MINISTER for National Planning Sam Basil says all natural resources in the country must be processed downstream and the final product exported, The National reports.

Speaking at the opening of the National Development Forum hosted by the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council at the Parliament House State Function Room, Basil said renewable and non-renewable resources must go under downstream processing onshore so that the country benefited from it.
"When we have downstream processing here, we will add value to our export commodities and maximise economic returns and benefits back to our country," he said.
"And most importantly, it will create employment, transfer skills and technology to Papua New Guineans and spin-off benefits apart from main revenue gain from the resources."
Basil said the traditional role of the government was to create an enabling environment for indigenous people to empower themselves and own and control the bulk of economic activities in their country.
He said for too long foreign-owned corporations had been ripping off the country's natural resources, leaving nothing for Papua New Guineans.
"Now there is a policy change under the O'Neill-Namah government whereby the indigenous people will have the upper hand in any resource development so that the bulk of the rural majority can see some changes in their living standards," he said.
Referring to the exports of round logs, he said they had the potential to collect billions of kina if they could be processed here.
 "We need a policy shift to have a downstream processing in the country so that all our natural resources can be processed here so that we maximise the benefits," Basil said.

National Planning plans visits to LLGs

By ALISON ANIS

THE Department of Na­tional Planning and Monitoring is carrying out a consultative programme targeting all lo­cal level governments (LLG), Mi­nister Sam Basil says, The National reports.
Basil yesterday an­noun­ced the consul­ta­tions process would begin on Monday in Alotau, Milne Bay.
"This is the first time we will be consulting with the LLG managers in all four regions to see how we can work with them to improve service delivery and basic infrastructure," he said at a media briefing at Vulu­pindi Haus.
Basil said district and provincial administrators were invited to join the meetings planned for this month but the key people during consultations would be LLG councillors and managers.
"These are the people who truly represent the grassroots and people of the country," he said.
"We believe that all LLGs and districts in PNG must have the resources and must be empowered to look after themselves," Basil said.
He said his team would be visiting Kokopo, East New Britain, on Aug 24-25 to talk to LLG ma­nagers from the Islands region, including the Bou­gain­ville Autonomous Region.
Basil said on Aug 26, the department would meet with Highlands LLG heads in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands.
Consultations with the Momase group would be held in Madang on Aug 29.
Basil said the aim was to bring tangible development at LLG level and see improvement of services delivery to the people.
"One way to do that is through public-private partnership (PPP) with government agencies, business houses and other credible organisations to see that rural people have direct access to services such as transport, electricity, communications and technology such as provided through the installation of VSat."
Basil said it was the dream of the new government to see that people had access to health, education and that the overall social welfare was improved.

Bodies of chopper crash victims found

CIVIL Aviation authorities yesterday confirmed that an Australian pilot and his two Papua New Guinea passengers were killed on Monday in the helicopter crash in the Bulolo district of Morobe province, The National reports.
Head of the Accident Investigation Commission David Inau said the helicopter, P2-RUH (pictured above before the crash) owned by Manolos Aviation, was flown by Peter Waters when it disappeared between the Wafi mine site and Mumeng while returning to Lae.
Inau said another helicopter spotted the wreckage that afternoon but bad weather prevented anyone from reaching the crash site, 5km south of Timini.
He said that on Wednesday, members of the Porgera mine's air rescue team were dropped in by helicopter and confirmed that there were no survivors.
Waters was in his 70s.
Also on board were two local G4S security guards.
Inau said Waters was an experienced pilot and a friend.
"Yeah I know him very well," he told Radio Australia yesterday said.
"We've flown together for many, many years here in PNG."
Inau said investigators arrived at the crash site yesterday morning and retrieved the three bodies with the help of local villagers.
The bodies were brought to Lae.
Villagers in the area had no idea that an aircraft had crashed nearby until notified by a search team.
They then led the team to the crash site.
Manolos Aviation and G4S could not be contacted for comments.
Civil Aviation Minister Puri Ruing sent his condolence to the families of the three dead people, saying that Inau's investigation team would be providing an interim report within 28 days.
"The investigation commenced shortly after the accident occurred and the on site component of the investigation will continue for several days," he said.

Morobe helicopter crash leaves 3 dead

By ELLEN TIAMU

Three people are dead following a helicopter crash in Morobe province on Monday, The National reports.
The twin-engine helicopter (pictured above during a recent trip to Finschhafen) , belonging to the Lae-based Manolos Aviation, was on its way to Wafi, in the Bulolo district, but a heavy cloud cover prevented it from landing.
The helicopter was trying to return to Lae when it went missing between Mumeng and Wafi.
Two G4S security guards and the expatriate pilot, Peter Wallace, were on board the helicopter. 
An air search was launched immediately to locate the missing helicopter.
However, aerial search and rescue attempts during the past three days had drawn a blank because the area was still under a heavy cloud cover.
Late last night Civil Aviation Minister Puri Ruing said the crash site had been found but there were no survivors.
He said the crash of the helicopter, P2-RUH, happened about 5km south of Timini.
"The investigation commenced shortly after the accident happened and the onsite component of the investigation will be continuing for several days," Ruing said,
He said the bodies of the pilot and the two passengers were being retrieved late yesterday while the investigators' reports would be ready within four weeks.