Dept starts housing project for staff on 30ha of land

By PHOEBE GWANGILO
Thirty hectares of land will be used to build houses for staff of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at 9-Mile, in Port Moresby, says Minister Wera Mori.
Speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony this week, he said: “The project testifies the O’Neill Government’s policy for public servants to own a decent home and for which it had allocated K200 million at Bank South Pacific for the housing scheme.”
Mori told the staff of the Department of Commerce and Industry, Small Medium Enterprise Corporation, Investment Promotion Authority, Industrial Centres Development Corporation and National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology (Nisit) that the land would be fenced this month.
He said work on roads, individual surveying for allotments, drainage, sewage, water supply, electricity and all other amenities would proceed after that.
“By October we will negotiate with the bank for staff to obtain the loan,” Mori said.
He said the selection of staff would be done under respective departments and agencies.
Mori thanked Nisit for an initial fund of K2 million.
The heads of department and agencies expressed their gratitude to Mori for speeding up the project, saying past ministers didn’t have the initiative of utilising the 30 hectares land owned by the department for over 20 years.
Nisit acting director-general Victor Gabi said this year marked his 18th year with the agency but he wasn’t given a house.
“I’d like to commend our current minister for making this possible,” Gabi said.
“It is my responsibility to work closely with all the committees appointed by the minister to see this project successful and I urged all my colleagues to do that,” he said.