Abel responds to queries on project

THE Government welcomes opportunities for investment in partnering investors but due processes should be followed, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel says.
Responding to questions by Eastern Highlands Governor Peter Numu on an Agriculture Industrial Park proposed for his province, Abel said the project China Railway Company an initiative of the provincial government.
“We have taken that project on board through the agriculture minister and have been processing the particulars around that proposed arrangement,” Abel said.
“There remained some concerns about the financial implications on the state, so I have put some of those questions back into the process.
“But we must be clear about some of the commitments contained in the finer details that we enter into as a state and these are not small financial commitments, so we undertake to continue to process that arrangement.
“It has not come to cabinet yet so it will go through due process and the questions will be put through cabinet once treasury has a full understanding after negotiating with the developer as to exactly what financial commitments and obligations we place on the state.
“If they are willing to come in and 100 per cent fund the programme, magnificent, unfortunately that is not the case and there are some quite significant undertakings that are required of the state and this must be fully understood before we commit.
“Cabinet will take those issues on board but we take these sorts of progrmames seriously and we are not in any way being flippant in not taking these projects seriously.”