Unfair & uneven infrastructure development concerns citizens
22 October 2016
CHARLIE CLYDE TIKARO | Kaulga's Travel Diary | Edited
A K120-million ground breaking ceremony has been held in Port Moresby to start work on the multi-million kina APEC Haus.
The minister responsible for APEC (the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum), Justin Tkatchenko, said the building will become an iconic structure for the country, showcasing Papua New Guinea to the world.
APEC Haus (illustrated here) will be built on reclaimed land near Ela Beach and Paga Hill for a forum meeting to be held in Port Moresby in 2018.
The groundwork contract was awarded to Global Construction, a company owned and operated by senior government officials.
Meanwhile, in the Menyamya district, Morobe’s largest coffee producers and fresh vegetable and fruit suppliers are still battling with thick mud in order to reach Lae to sell their produce and contribute to the economy.
Even Wau-Bulolo's national highway, the highway that hosts the Hidden Valley and Wafi gold mines, Zenag and PNG Forest Products, is getting worse and showing the dire need for a thorough upgrade after wash-aways by the Snake River.
This is a clear symptom of the unequal distribution of development in Papua New Guinea.
Would it be difficult to secure a loan from the World Bank to fix the Menyamya and Wau-Bulolo roads once and for all?
APEC Haus should not showcase PNG to the rest of the world at the expense of such areas like Menyamya and Wau-Bulolo which are in great need of support.
I was having a search for info on Paga Point history in WW2 and came across a very detailed account of the war and the activities on the Point at www.indicatorloops.com/pm_guns.htm
Some excellent pictures and info.
Noted the site of the APEC white elephant is close to original place where the Native Hospital was built in 1902 before being renovated in 1920 and with 60 beds for in-patients during inter war years.
Yanks took it over as officers club and of course it had great view and interior looks good too.
After WW2 it became RSL Club with part used for Admin. Library until 1957 when it became the District Education Office before being gutted in 60s when only concrete piles were left standing in the sea.
Worth visit to this web-site if you're interested in WW2 history of POM as it has articles on other gunsights around Fairfax harbour.
Posted by: Arthur Williams | 26 October 2016 at 08:36 PM
Why build a new APEC house when there is the recently built National Convention Center in the jungles of Waigani (in front of the National Museum and behind Independence Park).
That Chinese gaff of a convention center is perfect (if you can read the Chinese characters). It is now hardly used.
The APEC convention can be held there and at the Stanley Hotel. There is no need for the new development of a convention center. What we need is a government owned hotel so that we don't give more more to the likes of RH and Steamships Property.
K120 million can put up a government owned hotel that could easily be a 120 penthouses to cater for world leaders. The staff can be from the disciplined forces.
Isn't that how states involved the disciplined force in providing security and get to do a trade job. The plus for this is to recruit more into the disciplined force.
If the government wants to build infrastructure, it should look into the benefits up to and after the the use of the structure. it cannot have this structure that it will eventually rent it out to the Asians.
It must be a government institution, and there has to be a massive realignment in getting the government to operate institutions that will manage this structures.
That said these new developments at Ela Beach is a K120 million farce whilst our people die in the rural areas or roads and bridges in Lae/Bulolo deteriorates.
Now the K120 million is separate from the costs to host the meet. It is going to costs another several millions again for the weeks meet.
Most of our people in the villages just cannot even have access to just one kina coin for weeks on end as hey have no facility to market their vegetables or to sell their cash crops and our government is spending millions for a building that will have to be used for a week.
The government will then be dolling out another several millions to host it at the expense of our same poor suffering people.
Bleed me red.
My ears are shut to the rural crying.
My eyes have now rose covered glasses.
________
As the author is a civil servant, we have agreed to use a nom de plume to protect identity - KJ
Posted by: Kaulong | 23 October 2016 at 08:01 PM
it's interesting to mirror the all too visible deficiencies in PNG's ailing infrastructure with the perceived deficiencies in today's USA as measured by the Trump, "first 100 days in office," plans of remedial action.
An excerpt from those plans includes: We've doubled our national debt to $20 trillion under President Obama," said Trump. "In less than eight years, $10 trillion has been added. Think of it. And we haven't fixed anything.
Trump said he also plans an Education Opportunity Act, to allow parents to send their children to the "schools of their choice," and to end Common Core education standards, while bringing education supervision back to local communities.
The plan would also expand vocation and technical education, which has been "totally forgotten about in this country," and make two-year and four-year colleges more affordable.
Breaking News at Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Trump-Plan-First-Days/2016/10/22/id/754831/#ixzz4NqjKmprW
Posted by: Robin Lillicrapp | 23 October 2016 at 07:04 AM
It reminds me of soccer stadiums in the UK, where the main stand is often named after a director, who has merely used the club to launder ill-gotten gains.
In Queensland, we have the Hinze dam but I cannot personally recollect any knocking shops in Fortitude Valley bearing his name.
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 22 October 2016 at 01:37 PM
One of the richest countries in the world with millions of poverty stricken people and urban-rural disparities in development.
We need a major overhaul in service delivery in PNG targeting the rural population rather than urban dwellers. What a waste of funds invested for a week's event.
Posted by: Leo Maso Malala | 22 October 2016 at 12:51 PM
Seeing ad-ver-city, nice one, Michael.
As much as grander physical infrastructure can inspire a population, context is key, for comparably, Germany in 1930.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 22 October 2016 at 11:02 AM
III Condemnation
POM-POM city
Reality by
Pomposity – patent profitability
Preposterous irresponsibility
Meanwhile cancer patients at Angau Hospital might need to resort to Panadol for pain relief while waiting for medical drugs, equipment and service.
Posted by: Michael Dom | 22 October 2016 at 10:21 AM
This is another sign that PNG is slipping into quasi dictatorship mode.
Building stuff like this is what despots do. Most tinppot, poverty stricken countries in the third world have magnificent international airports.
It's a kind of shop front mentality designed to hide the mess behind the doors.
Posted by: Philip Fitzpatrick | 22 October 2016 at 08:54 AM