Formal partnership seals the deal

Business

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
A LANDOWNER group in Western has signed an agreement with an engineering company to assist them with projects in the province.
Kalguruls Supdimkiris Holdings Limited (KSHL) landowner company chairman Loth Gurulok, during the signing of the agreement with the Value Added Engineering (VAE) Company at Kiunga on Wednesday, said that the company represented seven clan groups living west of the P’nyang gas field.
“The agreement is to enable landowners to directly participate and benefit from the resources on their own land once the P’nyang gas field project starts its development process,” he said.
Gurulok said even though the P’nyang gas field project was still being processed, they wanted to be ready to benefit from their resources.
“For far too long, we have been watching other landowners in similar project areas become spectators on their own land,” Gurulok said.
“We want to change that.
“We also have other major projects in the province yet there are no tangible developments taking place.
“We still have run-down hospitals and school facilities, unsealed roads.
“We need roads to many of our rural locations.”
VAE chief executive officer Benjamin Carter said the intent was to form a joint-venture partnership to engineer, construct, manage and maintain major projects in Western.
“The partnership is called Vaekal as it is a mixture of VAE and KSHL,” Carter said
“The purpose of this partnership is to allow the community to participate in the work and the projects that will be undertaken in the next few years in this region.”
Carter said they intended to train and up-skill the people in trade and providing services for the projects in the province.
“This is a start of a long and rewarding partnership. But we have a lot of hard work to do to win contracts with the large developing companies,” Carter said.
VAE has been operating in Papua New Guinea for over 20 years, engaging in the PNG LNG in engineering and construction projects.