Chamber of commerce assists ENB’s devt plan

THE East New Britain provincial administration is working on its provincial development plan with assistance from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Provincial administrator Akuila Tubal said the province do not have a development plan to guide development and resource allocation in the province and it was very crucial that a developmental plan was designed to provide the guiding framework for all sectors, districts and LLG planning in the province.
Mr Tubal said he looked forward to the input and contributions from the Chamber of Commerce for a meaningful dialogue on how the private and government sectors can run their respective affairs.
Meanwhile, deputy administrator for policy planning and evaluation, Bernard Lukara, clarified that the province only had a corporate plan 2007-09 that addressed management issues categorised under six key result areas.
The plan will lapse at the end of the year and the administration will try to get the provincial executive council to roll this over for another 12 months to synchronise the long term 10-year development plan.
He said the division of planning would be organising a forum with the Chamber of Commerce on what development issues they thought the Government should take on board.
At the same time the provincial administration would be providing information on developmental issues they have on hand and for the Chamber of Commerce to comment on.
Mr Lukara said they would have an overall forum gauging views from a wide spectrum of the community and would also engage AusAID.
The private sector in ENB had contributed to the economic progress of the province and their efforts as development partners were highly commendable.
The provincial government had recognised this and had maintained it to continue to enhance the environment conducive to private sector investments.