Better quality infrastructure sought from K8.7bil investment

THE Government’s 2022 capital investment budget of K8.7 billion is aimed at the development of quality infrastructures, says National Planning and Monitoring Minister Rainbo Paita.
Speaking during the Budget debate in Parliament yesterday, Paita said this was to link the provinces and particularly the rural areas in the country.
Paita said some of the projects included the Connect PNG road programme, including the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone project in Madang and others.
The K8.7 billion budget is a critical component of the K22 billion National Budget for next year and is a 21.9 per cent increase on last year’s appropriation of K6.8 billion, according to Paita.
The 2022 capital investment budget includes the Government’s direct financing of K5.85 billion, concessional lending of K1.31 billion and donor grant financing of K1.57 billion.
“The infrastructure tax credit scheme in 2022 will complement the budget to deliver key infrastructure projects to relevant districts and provinces,” he said.
“This budget is framed against a tight fiscal environment induced by the prevailing Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which continues to affect economies globally and PNG is no exception.
“The capital investment programme is a key expenditure plan of the Government that is structured to deliver economic growth.”
Paita said there was a need to restructure the economy to strengthen the foundations for growth.
“It is against this backdrop that we are structuring this budget to make strategic interventions to keep the economy afloat,” he said.
Paita thanked donor agencies that had contributed and increased the grant component in “our project improvement programmes this year”.