Academic calls on govt to fund research, development

Youth & Careers

A University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) academic has called on the new government to set aside annual funding for research and development if PNG is to see an “industrial take-off”.
Chemistry professor Dr TopulRali, at the UPNG School of Natural and Physical Sciences, said annual funding of between K50-100 million was needed to improve research facilities in order to achieve maximum performance output of students and the country’s human resources in general.
Rali also called on the Government to fully fund the implementation of the Namaliu-Garnaut Report to achieve major infrastructure facelift and teaching facilities upgrade at all state-run universities in the country.
Failing that the government’s tuition fee-free policy would only result in mediocre outcomes at tertiary level, the academic said.