EHP eyes multilevel partnerships

By MARK HAIHUIE
EASTERN Highlands Governor Peter Numu says economic development through multilevel partnerships is a priority.
Numu, pictured, welcomed delegates to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation first senior officials’ meeting who visited Goroka at the weekend.
He told them that the province had a five-year economic development plan that focused on agriculture, trade and investment, and road infrastructure.
“These three pillars of economic development will drive the province forward for the five years of my term,” Numu said.
“We have a lot to offer in the areas of natural resources, including hectares of land for producing organic agriculture products, oil and gas, gold, copper and other mineral resources, coffee, forest and so on.
“As the country is still developing, we are prone to face a lot of challenges.
“Our topography and our road infrastructures are examples of such barriers to development.
“The burden of transporting our local produces to other provincial centres of our economy and of course the outside world is limited.”
Numu said he hoped the visit would create markets for Eastern Highlands SMEs and ongoing support to the development agenda.
“This economy is still young and therefore needs support with technical expertise such as capacity building and development aid from our 20 economies under Apec,” Numu said.
“We hope that your visit here will create more opportunities for our local small and medium-sized enterprises and dialogue between our provincial governments.
“Our province and the country has a lot to offer and my administration encourages you to engage with our local SMEs to create a market for our people.”