Fury over poor city ranking

A REPORT ranking Port Moresby 138 out of 140 liveable cities in the world has been described as harsh, ridiculous and irresponsible.
National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop described the Global liveability report 2021 recently released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as “a harsh verdict”.
“It is harsh because everyone (Papua New Guineans) have worked so hard to build (this city),” he added.
“Port Moresby has been ranked as one of the least liveable cities in the world, along with war-torn cities.
“We are constantly striving to transform Port Moresby into a world-class city, with modern infrastructure, conducive business environment and cultural development through music, arts and creative industry.
“To be ranked alongside Damascus is ridiculous and irresponsible.
“We want to know how the agency came to this conclusion.”
He also described the report as “totally irresponsible, counter-productive and paints a bad picture of (Port Moresby) internationally”.
“It will impact tourism, our economic and cultural reputation.”
Parkop said the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) planned to lodge a protest with the Europe-based agency which conducted the survey.
“We want them to review the ranking and we have sufficient evidence on the ground to show what we have achieved,” he said.
“Yes, we have a long way to go, but we definitely do not belong with terror-hit cities.”
The NCDC last year released a plan to guide future urban development, including infrastructure, affordable housing, roads, transport, utilities and open spaces.
“We want our city to be a safe, smart and liveable,” Parkop said.
“Though there are many challenges of urbanisation and population explosion, we are committed to upgrading roads, building markets for informal vendors, creating recreational spaces using the Ela Beach model and settlement to suburb.”
He said while the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed “gaps in our healthcare system, it also gave us an opportunity to identify and rectify these gaps”.
“We are currently in the process of building a Level-5 hospital in Gerehu which will be a general hospital for the city as the current hospital has been predesigned as a national referral and teaching hospital,” he said.