B’ville will still depend on PNG
The people of the former North Solomon province, now Bougainville, are advocating to break away from mainland Papua New Guinea.
While many are looking forward to the very day in 2019 when the actual voting will take place, others are still in dark on how to decide.
However, we must as the people of the collective Melanesian heritage, ask why independence when we know that Bougainville lags behind in many social indicators compared with other provinces or will it be a recipe for another failed state as the Australians always want to call.
All sectors need a lot of investments, whether it be education, health, road infrastructure, wharfs or jetties. The list goes on. Scotland has been developed by well-trained and well-educated workforce and has one of the highest living standards, better than England.
It has more advanced industries and some of the biggest insurance, finance and banking firms.
As they know that being small compared to the size of UK will always be a disadvantage when you want to trade, access capital and negotiate on treaties and agreements with other countries.
Therefore, size matters in today’s world of specialisation and opportunity costs.
Finally, the only thing Bougainville will rely on to develop itself will be its nature resources, including the still remaining huge copper and gold deposits
In Panguna, the big question is how will capital be raised to develop these resources and who will develop them?
The obvious answer is that they will need a foreign entity and capital to develop these resources, as they do not have the capital nor the expertise to develop them.
This will subject them to these foreign interest terms and conditions.
Therefore, Papua New Guinea will still be needed for assistance and advice.
Be realistic, Via email