East New Britain aims to fix roads

THE East New Britain government and its four districts of Kokopo, Rabaul, Gazelle and Pomio have agreed to seal 10km of roads in the province every year for the next five years.
Administrator Wilson Matava said the 2019 budget had allocated K116.3 million to infrastructure development.
“Our focus under the leadership of the governor and the support of the four MPs is to improve the 10km road every year,” Matava said.
The governor and the MPs have agreed to put in K1 million each.
“For instance, for the Bitapaka High School, the provincial government will put in K1 million and the Kokopo district will put in K1 million,” Matava said.
Meanwhile, Matava said a policy paper would be prepared to identify four local-level governments in the province to make them “model LLGs” – to set standards for service delivery in health, education, law and order.
“We have identified four LLGs in the province under a programme called the rural services delivery programme,” he said.
“The provincial government has approved about K800,000 to support this programme.
“This will provide some minimum standards in terms of education, health, social development and environment.”