Bad State of Road

Source: 

The National, 01st May 2012

By GABRIEL FITO

PEOPLE in the TewaeSiassi district of Morobe province have a sorry state of road. This road only allows for 4X4 trucks using this roads. Likewise Angoram district of East Sepik province are now completely cut off from accessing essential services in Wewak because of the appalling road condition.
Sections of the road between Ibab and Kasmin villages had deteriorated over the years and in recent weeks reached a stage where it could only be used by four-wheel drive vehicles.
The road is very slippery, with patches of mud, huge potholes and trenches caused by the lack of a proper drainage system.
Some passengers who travelled into Wewak last week said they spent 12 hours pushing and pulling a PMV through the difficult conditions before arriving at Wewak in the night.
It takes about two to three hours to reach Angoram by PMV from Wewak.
A former ward member at Gavien Rubber Scheme, Emil Gambro, said it was the same story for all feeder roads, including the 100km Gavien Rubber road, which was now only accessible by tractor.
Gambro said the settlement had serious law and order problems but police could not visit and the sick were dying because they could not access decent health care and treatment.
The situation has caused almost all PMVs servicing the route to suspend services.
The Angoram PMV Owners Association has made a public appeal through the local radio station throughout last week for all PMVs to stop work starting today in protest over the government’s failure to maintain the road.
Gambro said the people were aware of the situation affecting their MP Arthur Somare but the district administration should use money appropriated by Somare and his joint district planning and budget priority committee (JDP&BPC) members to fix the road.
Angoram district administrator Aloi Agat could not be reached for comments but Karawari LLG president Timothy Wani said the JDP&BPC had committed K1 million for road maintenance two weeks ago but work had been delayed because the provincial works office wanted the awarding of contract to go through the normal tender process.
Wani, Angoram LLG president Ken Charles and Marienberg’s Arnold Arero met the provincial works manager last Thursday.
They recommended that gravel be laid on the damaged section of the road while they awaited full maintenance works to start.

Need Government Support

Source: 

The National, 01st May 2012

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32144

By ANCILLA WRAKUALE

PEOPLE living in rural areas need more government empowerment to assist them venture into  small business, Minister for Trade and Industry Charles Abel says.
He said it was time the government provided services to rural areas that would enable people to venture into business.
Abel was speaking at the graduation ceremony of 49 women who underwent business training conducted by the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), at the Masurina Lodge in Alotau last Friday.
“Only few people own wealth and we need to reverse the trend if we are to survive in the long term,” he said.
Abel said that:
-Most businesses were owned by foreigners and there was a need for change;
-The Melanesian culture had an impact on the way we did business and it would be better to incorporate modern ways of doing business into our culture;
-The small medium enterprise (SME) policy went back to 1996 and was outdated; and
-The new 2012 SME policy would help in preserving businesses for locals.

SBDC women-in-busi­ness officer Maria Kalap said people wanted to venture into small businesses but they lacked the know-how.
Kalap, facilitator of the start improve your business (SYIB) training for women in Alotau, said SYIB was an internationally-recognised programme with International Labour Organisation (ILO) and was delivered in 96 countries worldwide.
She said SBDC had the mandate to promote SMEs and they would continue to instill knowledge and skills in those trying to start businesses or help improve existing businesses.
Kalap said the training had proven successful in PNG

Mongi Bridge

Pindiu has on its development strategy has maintaining the flood destroyed Mongi bridge. This bridge is the live line of Pindiu’s change. Prior to this the road maintenance has started from Yunzain to Mongi bridge. The maintenance work was contracted to the youths of Yunzain. They have done a good work. The Mongi bridge foundation has being laid by a sub-contractor under the supervision of the Morobe Provincial works engineers. The bridge materials were procured through the Finschafen District Planning and Budgetary Committee. The funds were sought by the National Member of Parliament through the rural development and planning ministry. Many of the goods for Pindiu and even the Burum-Kuwat LLG go through this bridge. The people also get off the transport at Silemana village. It is a very long descending down to the bridge and onto the other side to the Mongi river there is a stretch of road thence Pindiu Township.

The coffee and other garden produce that needs to be taken to the markets are also taken to Silemana before load onto trucks to be taken to Finschafen-Gagidu station. The sick and badly injured are also taken on stretcher to Silemana and transported to Gagidu. It is expected that the bridge will be completed by the end of the month June 2012. The work is progressing well. The parts of the bridge have been delivered. About a week or two after the hardening of the concrete blocks the heavy metal bridge will be laid.

Development Strategies of Pindiu

Pindiu is the name of township of Hube local level government. It is a LLG of Finschafen district. It produces some of the intelligent brains of Finschafen. The township is located about 900meters above the sealevel. Due to the difficulty in terms of transportation the LLG president (Honorable Kata) and his council members have put forward a development plan. The plan is divided in 5 categories:- Economic/business, agricultural, infrastructure/water, social/spiritual and education. These major five pillars were sent to the district council to be approved. These are the flat form that Hube LLG-Pindiu will chart its course in the next five years 2012-2017.