Amet to launch new banking scheme
MADANG Governor Sir Arnold Amet has approached the Government to assist in kick-starting a savings and loans society and micro-finance scheme in the province.
This is to help provide grassroots better, less rigid and more affordable banking services as opposed to the rigid banking requirements of commercial banks.
Sir Arnold revealed this last week during the opening of the Wau Micro Bank’s sixth branch in Madang, as the bank goes on a national drive to set up branches nationwide to bring banking services to the grassroots.
“I am concerned with how people can access better banking services and I support the establishment of WMB and other similar financial institutions that support grassroots,” Sir Arnold said, assuring his provincial government’s support in the venture.
The opening of the branch at the Able Computing building last Tuesday saw many people, mostly grassroots, flock to open accounts after hearing of the flexible requirements.
Sir Arnold also revealed that the district treasury roll-out programme did not receive enough money and called on Treasury to increase the current float of K5000, which he described as insufficient.
“If Treasury can increase the float to district agencies , this will enhance district treasury operations and also help the WMB in its future district expansion,” Sir Arnold said.

Olga to file appeal against recount
BY JOSHUA ARLO
WESTERN HIGHLANDS Governor Tom Olga is expected to file an appeal against the decision for a recount of the regional seat votes.
Last Friday his lawyer, Harvey Nii, appeared before Chief Justice Sir Mari Kapi seeking extra time to file the appeal.
Mr Nii told the court that the appeal was not filed yet because the required 14 days as per the Supreme Court rules had lapsed before they could give notice to the respondents.
He asked the Chief Justice to use his discretion to grant extra time needed to file the document.
Chief Justice Kapi granted a seven-day extension to Mr Nii to file the application for leave to review Justice David Cannings’ decision in Mt Hagen.
Justice Cannings had ordered that the votes in the provincial election be counted again.
Meanwhile, two separate applications seeking leave for judicial review of Justice Ambeng Kandakasi’s Feb 21 decision to annul the election of Minister for Education, Michael Laimo, came before the Chief Justice last Friday.
In his ruling, Justice Kandakasi said there were gross errors and omissions and illegal practices by Electoral Commission officials.
As a result, Justice Kandakasi declared that the election of Mr Laimo is void and that 212 votes be excluded from Laimo’s final tally, and that a recount of votes be held within 30 days.
The judge was also critical of the conduct of the Electoral Commission during the elections.
Both Mr Laimo and the Electoral Commission have filed for a review, and the court is expected to hear a stay application today.

Ramu announces start of sugar harvest
By JASON SOM KAUT
RAMU Agri Industries Ltd, manufacturers of Papua New Guinea’s number one sugar, has announced the start of the 2008 harvest to commence on April 6.
Fresh new Ramu sugar stock for this year’s harvest is expected to be in stores as early as next week.
The harvest process at Ramu began with the ceremonial lighting of the boilers at the sugar factory by its chief executive officer Michael Knight on Saturday.
In preparation for the harvest, the company recently embarked on a recruitment drive employing 600 seasonal workers who have undertaken induction and training for the 2008 season that will continue until October.
During the season, the company plans to produce around 40,000 tonnes of Ramu Sugar to be sold and distributed throughout the country.
The start of the sugar harvest comes shortly after the commencement of palm oil mill operations in the Ramu Valley.
Ramu Oil Palm is now operational, producing crude palm oil for export to the European market.
To date, the mill has produced around 900 tonnes of crude palm oil.
The establishment of Ramu Oil Palm has created an extra 1,500 job opportunities and will see communities on both sides of the valley in Morobe and Madang benefit as smallholders.

Philemon cites need for more schools
By JASON SOM KAUT
EIGHT hundred elementary schools and 660 primary schools need to be built by 2015 if PNG wants to achieve its universal primary education goal.
And the National Government has been urged to wake up and use on-the-ground statistics to plan a way forward in addressing the nation’s dire statistics in educational enrolment and retention rates.
Deputy Opposition Leader and Member for Lae Bart Philemon made this remarks during the official opening of an eight-bay classroom and other facilities, including a library, at Omili Primary School in Lae, Morobe province, last Thursday.
“There is no future in a country that ignores the education of its human resources, and the continuous development and upgrading of the acquired skills over the lifetime of its workers,” Mr Philemon said.
Papua New Guinea signed up on its international commitment to achieve universal primary education with 189 countries under the United Nations Millennium Summit Declaration.
“PNG won’t achieve the goal of having all children completing a full course of primary schooling to Grade 12 by the year 2015,” he said.

Kapris woos investors
PAPUA New Guinea will host the Sino-PNG trade and investment symposium in Port Moresby in July.
“The symposium, initiated by the PNG embassy in China, proposes to bring Chinese investors to PNG and introduce them to a wider PNG audience,” Commerce and Industry Minister Gabriel Kapris told reporters last Friday.
He said this would comprise potential as well as current PNG entrepreneurs who will meet with Chinese investors and discuss business.
Minister Kapris made these comments after leading a PNG delegation to China, where they made several presentations to business communities to promote the July symposium.
Mr Kapris, accompanied by Member for Wosera-Gawi Ronald Asik, PNG ambassador to China John Momis, Investment Promotion Authority managing director Ivan Pomaleu and officials from IPA and Commerce and Industry, made presentations in Beijing, Shangai and Guangzhou.
He said China was emerging as the next global economic superpower and PNG hopes to secure its place in this surge.

TB database need sounded
THERE needs to be a better database to combat the increase of tuberculosis, according to a senior provincial health official.
Micah Yawing, the deputy programme adviser for health with the Department of Morobe, told the World TB Day celebrations at the Lae hockey field that the disease needs to be detected at the earliest possible stage in all villages, LLG areas and districts.
“We also need better laboratories,” he said.
He added that drugs must be available.
“TB needs long term treatment, needs supervision and awareness,” he said.
The direct observation treatment (DOTs) helps families see that their infected family member does not default.
“This will stop the spread of TB in the family unit,” he said.
A motorcade of floats and more than 1,000 marchers waving banners on TB awareness, marched through town to the hockey field beside the Lae market.
Companies including Digicel supplied T-shirts.
NGOs including World Vision were at the forefront organising the progress of the ceremony.
The ceremony was also attended by Governor Luther Wenge.

Parlt to decide on Oro’s future
THE permanent Parliamentary Disaster Committee has made a final assessment visit to the Oro province before making a recommendation to Parliament to lift or further extend the State of Emergency (SoE).
Chairman James Lagea and committee members Malakai Tabar, Fidelis Semoso, Sam Basil and Feraro Orimyo visited the province last weekend.
Their SoE report will take precedence over other matters when Parliament resumes tomorrow.

West New Britain to apply for judicial review
THE National Court in Waigani has granted leave to the West New Britain (WNB) provincial government to apply for judicial review of the decision of the lands board and the Lands Department to allocate State land to a foreign-owned company in Kimbe.
Deputy Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia ruled on March 19 that he was satisfied that the WNB provincial government is a government body and one of its functions is to ensure State land in the province is protected.
The land in question is between the provincial government building and the main market in Kimbe town.
The provincial government has decided to challenge the matter in court because of public outcry opposing the building of a shopping centre as the land is not fit for commercial purpose.
Lawyers for the WNB provincial government have already filed court papers for the judicial review and are waiting for a date to be set by the court.
The provincial government is concerned about State land being taken illegally and will fight through the legal process.

Application to dismiss petition refused
AN application to dismiss a petition by John Warisan against Ijivitari Open MP David Arore was refused last Friday.
The petition went for trial on March 10 and was supposed to continue until March 14 but before witnesses were called, counsel for Mr Arore, David Dotaona, applied to move a notice of objection to competency.
Mr Dotaona based his application on grounds that the petition failed to plead material facts as required by section 208 (a) of the Organic Law.
He submitted that there were insufficient pleadings in the petition and therefore it should not proceed to trial.
Justice Salatiel Lenalia refused the application.

Miner loses arm in card game argument
AN employee of the Porgera Gold Mine had his left arm severed during an argument over a card game last Friday at Lenki village outside Wabag, Enga province .
Provincial police commander Superintendent Michael Chare said community leaders had handed over a suspect to police.
Mr Chare said Benny Saa, of Birip village, is in critical condition at the Wabag General Hospital.
He said Saa was playing a card game with a group of men at Lenki village when an argument developed. The suspect picked up a bush knife and swung it at Saa, completely severing his left arm.
The suspect was charged with attempted murder, and will appear in court today.
The quick handing over of the suspect prevented a retaliatory attack from the victim’s tribesmen.

Teachers urged to use own addresses
Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) Michael Pearson has advised all teachers to use private postal addresses.
He said this would enable Nambawan Super Ltd to send teachers’ annual statements to their respective addresses.
“If teachers do not do this, their statements will end up at the TSC office and will be slowly sent to teachers’ pay locations.
“However, if we are unable to identify the location of the teacher, the teacher’s mail remains here, ”he said.
All teachers should have private postal addresses included in
their personal details, Mr Pearson said.
Mr Pearson said teachers’ addresses were important whenever there was a need to contact the teacher directly.
He said the Teaching Service Commission is not to be used as the address for teachers’ mail as the Teaching Service will not be held responsible for the forwarding of teachers’ mail being delivered to the Commission’s postal address.

‘Lawyers cause delays in petitions’
By JOSHUA ARLO
KANDEP Open MP Don Polye’s lawyer was cautioned yesterday by National Court judge Justice Mark Sevua against filing affidavits surpassing the number of witnesses indicated to give evidence, saying most delays in petitions are caused by lawyers.
Lawyer Paulus Dowa was told that he could not file extra affidavits and then seek leave of court to accept them as supporting evidence in this election petition.
The court said this as earlier it was informed that Mr Polye had planned to have 50 witnesses. However his lawyer went ahead and filed 61 affidavits instead.
Justice Sevua told Mr Dowa not to use the court as a “rubber stamp”.
The petition was filed by Alfred Luke Manase against Mr Polye on allegations of malpractices.

RIC raises concern over Govt’s revised ICT policy
By FRANK ASAELI
THE agriculture industry, with the rural population in mind, is concerned over the Government’s revised information and communication technology (ICT) policy which it says limits competition.
The policy allows Telikom PNG to be the only holder of a general carrier licence to continue to have the reserved rights over the fixed line network and the international gateway.
Executive officer of Rural Industries Council (RIC) Graham Ainui said the industry wants to see a deregulated or open communications industry backed by high quality road networks which will expedite rural development by boosting the country’s agriculture industry and increasing production.
“As about 85% of agriculture activity is conducted in remote rural areas, one would have to look at communication in its broadest definition which includes transport, roads,waterways, wharves and jetties, telephone services, Internet and email services,” Mr Ainui said.

New road to benefit Mul district
The people of Kumdi Oinamb tribes in the Mul/Baiyer district of Western Highlands province successfully completed the construction of a 12km feeder road.
Councillor for the Oinamb clan David Poning said about 3,000 people will benefit from the road.
Mr Poning said in the past, the people hardly transported their produce to the market because of the long distance.
He said with the linking of a new road, to the Hagen/Baiyer road the people are now able to transport of their produce to the town market at ease.
He said the people would not have to walk for more than an hour to the nearest road to catch a PMV to town and back.