Bougainville growing its economy

By EHEYUC SESERU
THE Autonomous Bougainville Government is growing its economy while following a political path to independence no later than 2027, says an official.
Bougainville Vice-President and Minister for Commerce, Trade, Industry and Economic Development Patrick Nisira said while they were happy with the political process being on track, it was their biggest challenge to get the economy running.
“We need a project of economic impact to support our aspirations to be an independent country,” he said
“Our target at the moment is re-opening the Panguna Mine.
There’s a process on Panguna that we’re working on, to get all landowners to agree with us in reopening the mine.”
“The people of Panguna have actually agreed to reopen the mine.
“So, hopefully, by August we should re-issue an exploration licence for the special mining lease area in Panguna. This is the process that we’re working on in our aspiration to get the mine reopened.”
Nisira said there was also a government-sanctioned process of the impact assessment study being conducted by Bougainville Copper Limited and Rio Tinto companies at the moment.
“To assess the impact and maybe make preparations later by way of compensating people of Bougainville,” he said.
“We’re supporting the process so once it’s complete, the government and Rio Tinto can actually come up with solutions for legacy issues there.”
Nisira said his ministry was also trying to develop industries, coming up with new projects to generate income and provide employment opportunities for the people.
“One of those important projects is the water board project,” he said.
“We hope that when it comes up and running, at least we’ll provide jobs for our youths.
“Other important project is the Bougainville refinery. We’ve entered into a partnership with a foreigner (company) for a 60-40 per cent arrangement to process and smelt gold.
“We’ll build our economy base with that refinery, we’ve learnt from the Bougainville copper experience.
“Construction has started, and the facility should be running by the end of the year.
“We also have other projects. We won’t depend much on donors or other countries for support.”