Economic development vital for B’ville to survive

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
BOUGAINVILLE Affairs Minister Sir Puka Temu says Bougainville is not economically prepared to sustain themselves in the post-referendum period.
“We need to rebuild Bougainville’s economy,” he said.
“To me one of the urgent areas which will be part of the awareness between now and post-referendum preparation is focusing on the economic growth of the region.
“Olgeta samting yumi ken toktok tasol sapos (we can talk about everything but if) we don’t structure the economic programme on Bougainville we will still be talking (about Bougainville’s political future) for a long, long time.”
Sir Puka said last week they had to look at the productive sectors like tourism, forestry, fisheries, mining, and agriculture.
“Those are very important areas for the growth of the region in terms of the economy.
“The assurance from the national government to help the region reorganise and restructure the economy of the region is equally important because when we grant autonomy, we have been struggling with the economic side of the autonomy,” he said.
Sir Puka said another push he would drive was the transfer of powers programme.
“That is a big component the national government and Autonomous Bougainville government through process we have not concluded.”
He said there was still a lot of work to be done but they were caught in the referendum commitment that was in the peace agreement.
“And so our focus now is the delivery of the referendum outcome through the peaceful means and therefore we want to make sure that the credibility of the process is not marred with gun and weapons and insecurity,” Sir Puka said.