Foreign missions crucial for country

PAPUA New Guinea will be among a handful of countries that have foreign missions established in Jerusalem, Israel, as announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko in Parliament last week.
Those few countries have (much to the annoyance of some others who have strong views on the Israel-Palestine conflict) recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.
Which is not Papua New Guinea’s official stand but that may be a discussion point for another time.
Most other countries who have diplomatic ties with Israel have their missions set up in the commercial capital of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast.
The office in Israel will be among four other new missions.
The others will be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Thailand and Switzerland.
These will add to the existing 20 which will enable PNG’s representation in 24 countries and institutions globally.
As far as PNG-Israel relations go, the first state visit was by former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill in October 2013, which set the ball rolling towards formalising the establishment of a foreign mission.
On the eve of his departure to Israel then, O’Neill had announced that his visit would focus on using Israeli expertise in agriculture, defence, security and communications technology.
There have been some positives resulting from that visit, apart from the controversial diesel generators sitting idle in Lae and Port Moresby.
At that time of that visit, Israeli expertise was already being sought for agricultural projects in Hela and the National Capital District, which today are in production and providing employment.
The current government, to its credit, is following on with the enhancement of relations with the state of Israel.
Obviously, more varied Israeli expertise in agriculture would be needed in production and especially in downstream processing.
The mission in Jerusalem, besides enhanced trade and diplomatic relations at government level, will enable easier travel arrangements for Papua New Guinean Christians making pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to also establish people-to-people and business-to-business connections.
Israel also has a successful youth programme that enables young people to serve and acquire training in its military, which addresses a critical employment and security need to some extent.
Although the two countries’ security situations are very difficult, there are valuable lessons Papua New Guinea can learn and perhaps adopt here to address issues like youth indiscipline and idleness and instill the value of hard work and a sense of patriotism.
Papua New Guinea’s youth problem, given the disturbing statistics of idle out-of-school students pushed out each year, needs critical thought and meaningful action to avoid an impending catastrophe.
Friends like Israel and others who have managed to engage this energetic and vibrant sector of their populations might be willing to offer us some help could provide some answers to that national problem.
It is a national issue requiring a national solution but some guidance from outside would not be totally out of place though.
The proposed missions in Thailand and the UAE will hopefully broaden opportunities for agricultural investment and trade especially produce like organic coffee to Asean and Middle East markets for instance.
The PNG delegation to the world expo in the UAE returned home with firm conviction to establish trade connections with that part of the world.
Organic coffee, for instance, could find a niche market there.
Besides agriculture, opportunities in education and communications technology would be explored with the establishment of these foreign missions.
There is optimism for greater opportunity but will PNG be able to sustain all its missions with adequate resourcing, and will they return value for money?
These are critical questions to be considered given the low and inconsistent funding of missions in recent times.