By MATTHEW VARI
Sunday, April 6, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)
THE government of Papua New Guinea remains committed
to having a strong relationship with the world community through the United
Nations by committing land to enable the world organisation build its own head
office complex in the National Capital District.
Confirming the availability of title to the UN,
visiting United Nations Development Program Administrator, and former New
Zealad Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said that the availability of the land and
eventual building of a complex to house all relevant agencies for the UN was
vital in order proper coordination for development projects in the
country.
“The UN in PNG is very keen to have a one UN house,
and the government has been very interested in supporting that,” Ms Clark said.
“Papua New Guinea was one of the very early countries
that signed up for the UN deliver as one- for one program, one fund, one leader,
one budget, and one of the components of that is one house.”
“If everyone is together you have better coordination
across the UN, which is good for supporting Papua New Guinea’s development.”
She said that as an organisation they found that the
rent they have in existing building housing their operations were very expensive.
“It is so expansive that they could make the presence
of some of the important agencies here unsustainable,” she said.
“Ideally we would like to have a new building and we
may also have some discussion with the government about interim solutions in
existing buildings.”
“At present I’m hearing a lot of agony from UN
agencies about the cost of accommodation.”
She added that the government has made the title
available, so they were now looking at what it will take to get the UN house
built.
“We did quite a bit of work on this several years ago
in my last visit, but there was an issue on whether we could proceed on the
land.”
“We need to get the plans out of the bottom draw and
start on getting our house built.”
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