Abel presents K1.5m for Sustainable Development degree program

Caption:  Minister Abel presenting the cheque to Acting Vice Chancellor Prof Vincent Malaibe, with pioneering students of the program.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, April 5, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

MINISTER for National Planning and Monitoring, Charles Abel, presented K1.5 million to the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) on Wednesday to fund the newly established Bachelor of Sustainable Development Degree Program under the School of Natural and Physical Science (SNPS).

With the pioneering intake of 22 student to take the program,- Minister Abel was informed to expect the first batch of graduates to complete studies by 2018, spearheading the governments National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development plan.

The funding is part of the commitment made by both institutions in June 2014 through the signing of a five year MoU.

K1.5 million being the initial portion of a K2.5 million commitment made by the Ministry for the university to facilitate a number of initiatives geared towards progressing the major government strategy drive.

Dean of SNPS Professor Peter Petsul said that the school was excited about the prospects of the program which he said had been on the drawing board for a number of years to be finally implemented.

“Last year we had a conference which touched on issues relating to Sustainable Development,” Prof Petsul said.

“We have carried on from that with the start of the program this year by taking in the foundation intake for this program.”

“It is a new root where by we give opportunity to our students who have done science and would want to come back and continue in how to plan and all issues related to sustainable existence.”

Minister Abel congratulated and acknowledged the pioneer student for taking the new program, calling them groundbreaking students leading the way.

“In the sense, you are committing yourselves and your lives to a large degree to a new field, so I congratulate you for being bold, even though you could have chosen other fields to study in.”

“Let us make sure the path you now have set on comes to fruition by us working together, from the government to make sure that the important principles behind this we subscribe to and stick to them.”

“As far as I am concerned from this government and our planning perspective this is very much the way we want to go in the longer term,” Abel said.

He said that the country could lead the way in a development revolution- with time being vital for PNG to choose as early as possible in the planning processes and development path direction.

“All the opportunity cost that we are foregoing at the moment by choosing a copycat development pathway because we are caught up in a development cycle that is harder and harder to disentangle ourselves from as the population continues to grow as the needs of our people are apparently before us,” the Minister explained.

“It is very important that we recognize that it is even harder is come up with the policy directions and strategies to begin to exit from that sort of development pathway.”

“It is about how we as academics and planners and citizens of PNG begin to recognize that and start to make a transition.”

He said the approach being taken by the national government in effectively sustainably planning the country’s development was enshrined in the preambles of the constitution clearly.

“It is nothing new or complicated we are talking about here, it is also imbedded in our culture, and in the principles of Christianity.”