Govt approves of diplomatic training school

National

Foreign Affairs and Trade Department acting Secretary Barbara Agirigolo says that Cabinet has approved the establishment of a diplomatic training institute in PNG.
Agirigolo spoke at the conclusion of the fourth PNG Foreign Service training programme last Wednesday in Port Moresby.
“Our vision is to have a diplomatic training institute in Papua New Guinea, it has already been approved by the Cabinet,” she said.
“That will enable us to invite other Pacific Island countries to send their young diplomats to train here.
“In the 80s, we had people from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands train with our diplomats.
“That also allowed us to build strong relationship with those countries and we are aiming to do that again.”
Agirigolo said that despite the programme not being held this year, the government had been discussing with the New Zealand government and also with Victoria University of Australia to see how the programme could be expanded.
“For so long we did not have a foreign service training programme so we didn’t recruit new foreign service officers that were trained to undertake foreign service work,” she said
“So having the programme introduced in 2013 was a big boost for the department because we were able to recruit fresh graduates from universities around the country.
“This training programme has enabled us to have very good quality officers.
“Speech writing and report writing have been issues realised in the programme, so we have been talking with the Victorian University to see how we can expand the modules.
“The department is also blessed to have a partner in New Zealand that is serious in capacity-building in our department.”