Conference centre by the mangroves

By MALUM NALU
AT Boera village outside Port Moresby, just up the road from the PNG LNG plant site, a much smaller development is taking place.
Koke Hanua, a conference centre beside the sea, has been built by the husband and wife team of William Kwara and Ulato Avei, retired public servants who have used their savings and some help from the National Development Bank to set up this place.
It has cost them almost K1 million to build the conference centre.
They are hoping to pull in some of the business from the multi-million kina conference industry to their humble abode beside the mangroves of Boera.
“We are thankful to the (Avei) family for allowing us to build this conference centre,” Kwara, originally from Keapara but now living in Boera with his wife, tells me.
“We are also grateful to the National Development Bank for providing a loan facility to build this conference centre.
“It took us quite some time to build and the costs also went up.
“We were fortunate that we engaged some family members and friends, especially the architect and the structural engineer, to plan this building.
“We’ve engaged local family members from Boera and Keapara to put up this building.”
Koke Hanua is a spacious, modern building complete with electricity and fittings to host conferences.
“We are also doing landscaping and our future plan is to build a jetty, with a number of haus wins over the sea, so people can enjoy picnics or whatever,” Kwara says.
“In the meantime, the building will cater for conferences and meetings, and we will also provide barbeque and bar facilities for members of the public to come out here and enjoy.”
Kwara says they have already invited government departments and agencies, as well as private companies including ExxonMobil, to visit the facility with a view to using it in future.
“We intend to launch the centre in early February,” he says.
“Work started about two years ago, one of the reasons for the delay being the drawdown of the loan.
“The other delay was in the steelworks and cement works.
“We had to bring in professionals to do the steelworks and the cement works.”
Avei says the whole idea was to have “a modern facility in a rural setting”.
“We are friendly people so that’s one of our advantages,” she says.
“But, like all other businesses, we’ll be strict and have our own management rules.
“This year, we’ll be concentrating on conferences and meetings alone, and later we’ll have the bar.”
Kwara, 61, and Avei, 58, are quietly confident that Koke Hanua will prosper, with plans to have accommodation in the future.
They hope to also cash in on the city expansion towards the PNG LNG plant. Sitting on the balcony of their new hideout, looking over the mangroves towards the sea, the couple foresees a bright future ahead.