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By ZACHERY PER
MEMBERS of Parliament and students from the Hela region, Southern
Highlands province, joined forces during a Hela development forum in
Goroka to pursue the fight for separate a province.
They resolved to continue the battle for Hela province and also to look
at how best they could contribute towards developing the region from
their different professional background.
Tari-Pori MP James Marabe and Koroba-Kopiago MP John Kekeno met with
Hela students at the University of Goroka and the PNG University of
Technology in Lae last Sunday at the National Sports Institute in Goroka
and deliberated on issues affecting the region.
Southern Highlands Governor Andersen Agiru and Komo-Magarima MP Francis
Potape were not present but sent their apologies.
According to forum facilitator Ronny Angu, the Hela developmental forum
is aimed at combining all intellectuals of the region working and
studying in PNG to air their views on how effectively they could
contribute towards the ideas for development of Hela.
He said a separate province was one of the major priorities of the forum
where they looked at how best to approach the Government to speed up the
process for them to be granted a separate province.
They agreed that Hela province was now a Government business, where the
initiator of the forum Mr Marabe and Mr Kekeno with other MPs from Hela
including Mr Agiru would be taking up on the floor of Parliament.
Mr Kekeno told the students that he would back Mr Marabe on the issue.
He said one of their aims was to build a hospital in Hela with
state-of-the-art facilities that met international standards.
Mr Marabe challenged Hela students currently studying in major tertiary
institutions to take their studies seriously to enable them to
contribute meaningfully towards the development of the region in future.
Mr Marabe also committed to provide K3,000 as school fee incentives for
any student who scores ‘A’ grading in any of the country’s tertiary
institutions.
Students from Kabiufa Secondary School, Goroka Business College,
Highlands Regional School of Nursing and Mt Hagen Technical College also
attended the forum.
 
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