Careful of foreign consultants, activities

The National Letters

PAPUA New Guinea must be cautious of foreign consultations when dealing with its internal matters.
While some foreign consultations may be helpful, some are not good for the country.
Before taking on board foreign consultations, take note of the country’s following features, situations and natural resources:

  •  PNG, a Pacific island nation, is not a continent;
  •  PNG people mostly are self-reliant, not benefiting directly from Government funding;
  • The country’s rugged terrain is not easy to develop;
  • PNG people are rich in cultures, traditions and customs;
  • PPNG is a third world, developing nation, progressing to full civilisation is rather slow;
  • PNG has political instabilities and differences;
  • PNG is rich in oil and gas resources;
  • PNG is rich in gold, copper, nickel;
  • PNG has a rich rainforest;
  • PNG is rich in agricultural cash crops such as coffee, copra, cocoa, oil palm and vanilla;
  • PNG is rich in marine biodiversity such as tuna, turtles, sea cucumber, sharks and whales, dolphins and all kinds of other fish species; and,
  • PNG has high potential in tourism, with attractive and unusual landscapes.

On that understanding, why not we look out to the African, Middle East and South American countries that had progressed from similar natural resources.
We need to know who were the lead developers and/or investors of their oil fields, mining, logging, and agriculture industries.
Studying their success stories will help us lead and develop Papua New Guinea.
We will learn from them in order to manage our country properly and effectively, given their experiences and the situations that they had gone through.
These countries have rich experiences to share.
By now we should be living good lifestyles with vehicles for each household, good modern accommodations, good meals, free health care and medical services.
For instance, Fiji, as a sister Pacific island nation, has gone far with their standard of living, regardless of a fewer income-generating base in their country.
So far, both governments, Marape and previously O’Neill, have taken some positive initiatives in cutting down on foreign investors having more shares from our resources. But the Government need to do it properly, slowly, with due care and consideration.
People must see actual changes happening and impacting their lives now and into the future.
This is something that the Government has to work hard to make it happen.

Yorine Inove
Via email