Govt delivering on Bougainville: PM

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, August 28, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

FOLLOWING debate on the Ministerial Statement of the National Coordinating Office of Bougainville Affairs, by Minister Joe Lera on Tuesday in Parliament- Prime Minister Peter O’Neill told parliament of the government’s intention is to show the autonomous region its commitment in the lead up to the 2019 Referendum.

He made the comments in light of debate made on the preparation, capacity, governance, constitution, and legacy that the Bougainville situation would have on the country and autonomous region as a whole.

“Today I am very proud to say, even made almost three or four trips to Bougainville- people know our intensions on Bougainville.”

“When I made an official visit I made it very specific that we are not here to talk about autonomy or the referendum, not here to talk about independence. We are here to talk about service delivery; we are not here to talk about Panguna for that matter.”

“Since then our government has delivered milestone infrastructure.”

He said testaments were that of the resealed Buka Township with most of the buka ring road resealed, sealing from Kokopau down to Arawa in partnership with JICA, and Arawa town the sealing program partnering with AusAid.

“When you go to Aropa the road is being maintained and people are starting to move freely. We have reopened, using special infrastructure grants, Aropa Airport that is now serving the entire island as we speak.”

“We have just recently launched and given a contract to now build from Aropa all the way down to Buin for the first time.”

“This government for the first time is doing a lot of things- we’ve restored banking services, telephone services, port services, post office- town hospitals are functioning, schools are functioning, DSIP is working PSIP is working on Bougainville.”

He said with a lot more to do- the government aims to win the confidence of the people in the region.

“We have got up until 2019 to tell our people in Bougainville that they are better off being a part of Papua New Guinea than alone.”

“You see many counties around the world with a population of 200,000- the likelihood of them surviving successfully is very limited because they do not have an economy strong enough to survive.”

“Bougainvillians are better off being a part of Papua New Guinea. That is what they have to be told to understand. The only way we can win their confidence is making sure we deliver on what we say we will deliver- not letting them down. We have been letting them down for 20 years since the peace agreement.”

“In terms of autonomy we are slowly passing on the legislation powers to the Bougainville Government, including recently the mining laws and Bougainvillians are building their own capacity but is not as fast as we all expect- trying to put up a new governance structure in a province that has gone through crisis like they have been is not easy.”