Wealthy, prosperous PNG, population happy

Oseah Philemon

October 2009 Issue

 

Thirty four years after the colonial government of Australia handed over powers to a newly-independent State of Papua New Guine—the man who campaigned for independence is looking for a new direction for his country.
Michael Thomas Somare became prime minister of the new nation on September 16, 1975.
Now 34 years on and approaching the end of his long political career—he is looking for a new vision in the form of a national strategic plan for Papua New Guinea that he hopes will make it more prosperous, wealthier and the people much happier.
It is a 50-year national strategic plan that Somare is looking for and his government is committed to setting it in concrete long before he bows out of politics in 2012 when the nation prepares for its next general elections.
Somare said the national strategic plan will be the vehicle that will drive the collective development aspirations of Papua New Guinea.
When he brought his whole government to the PNG port and industrial city of Lae to deliberate on the new strategic plan, he said he was fully committed to ensuring the plan was put into action to propel PNG forward into the future.
“For the first time since independence my government has embarked on an initiative to formulate a coherent national strategic plan,” said Somare.
He described the 2010-2050 plan as a home-grown plan developed by the government with  expert advice, knowledge and experiences of some of the best brains in PNG.
The plan stands on six focus areas:
• Strategic planning, integration and control;
• Institutional development and service delivery;
• Human capital development, gender, youth and people empowerment;
• Wealth creation, natural resources and growth nodes;
• Security and international relations; and
• Climate change and environmental sustainability
The chairman of the taskforce which assisted the Somare government in formulating the national strategic plan is Professor David Kavanamur of the University of Papua New Guinea.
SERVICE DELIVERY
He told top Waigani  bureaucrats who travelled to Lae for the national leaders’ summit that  the government’s service delivery mechanism has collapsed to the extent that it now calls for the immediate declaration of a state of emergency to enable the government to address the situation affecting the bulk of the people living mainly in the rural areas.
Kavanamur said the National Planning Committee National Strategic Plan Taskforce had consulted the people widely in the rural areas of PNG and the evidence they have seen and heard screams of national shame.
Services are not reaching the bulk of the people in the rural areas. That is the simple message.
“I must point out here that through the National Strategic Plan Task Force consultations, our findings are pointing to a national crisis due to the chronic decline in service especially in rural Papua New Guinea—particularly within the district space where the majority of our people live.
“In order to secure a sound future, we must embark immediately to effect changes to rationalise the public service workforce currently being regarded as the focal point for service delivery,” Kavanamur said in his address.
“This grave state of affairs at the local level is totally unacceptable and should prompt the immediate declaration of a state of emergency on rural service delivery collapse under relevant sections of the constitution so that specific directives are issued by the government in the national interest to address the most affected concerns which we refer to as “Service Delivery Critical.”
Kavanamur said the service delivery initiative should also be effected through an agreed political structure.

SOMARE’S NEW VISION The focus areas • Strategic planning, integration and control; • Institutional development and service delivery; • Human capital development, gender, youth and people empowerment; • Wealth creation, natural resources and growth nodes; • Security and international relations; and • Climate change and environmental sustainability

THE WAY FORWARD
He then presented to the top public servants three political options as the way forward.
Option one calls for a two-tier system of government, option two for a three-tier system and option three a bicameral House of Parliament.
Governors of all provinces discussed the options presented and agreed that a three-tier government structure of local level government, provincial government and national government was the way forward for PNG. It is the system that is currently in place. The Somare government has also endorsed the views of the governors.
As for the national strategic plan, http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41580000/jpg/_41580776_snyder.jpgDr Kavanamur said the core areas at the heart of the whole exercise are service delivery, wealth creation and human capital development.
Under service delivery, the focus is on developing better platforms to ensure services are directly delivered to the 6.5 million people of PNG.
Under wealth creation, the emphasis is on wealth creation or the art of buying and selling with a major shift away from public service thinking. This will involve the public service re-orienting itself towards an entrepreneurial approach through human resource development—away from the current expenditure mentality or mindset.
“A new public service should be steeped in building strategic alliances with the private sector where relationships convert to mutual economic benefits. As for human capital development, the taskforce says it is critical for a new look public service to have people who are fully qualified under the national qualifications framework for public service training.