PAPUA New Guinea’s economy is on solid foundation, Mining Vice-Minister Ano Pala said.
Mr Pala made the comment when he launched the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby last Friday.
He said he was excited to have been appointed vice-minister at a time when PNG was getting ready to take off.
“There is political stability … public and private sector confidence in this Government is high, and there is a very strong but quiet sense of confidence that this country is finally getting onto the right path to move forward,” Mr Pala said.
He stressed on the Deputy Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu’s comments from last month that he “wanted to make PNG a better place”.
Dr Temu had said that he wanted not only a strong economic foundation for the country but also he wanted to make PNG a better place for everyone to become effective and meaningful participants in building the economy.
“Achieving this is not only the constitutional duty and responsibility of the Government or any government for that matter, but the inherent right of the people of this country,” Mr Pala said.
He said Government policies were only as good as their effective implementation and enforcement, and implementation and enforcement issues continue to be some of the nation’s biggest hurdles.
The MRA was the initiative of the National Alliance-led Government, which believed in the constitutional, professional, and commercial frameworks on which the authority now stands and was therefore, “totally committed to ensuring that the MRA was given the support required to make it work”.
Mr Pala said the ability of the MRA to respond to changes taking place in the mining industry was crucial.
“One important event that had been overlooked for so long is the creation of a mine closure programme for all mining operations,” he said.
He said the opening of a mine was as important as closing it.
One key challenge that will be faced by 2015 is that all existing mines and oil operations, which contribute significantly to the economy, will either scale down or cease operations.