Govt-developer tie up a must to effect change

By ANCILLA WRAKUALE
THERE is need for strong private public sector partnership with the government and the developers in the mining and petroleum sector to effect tangible changes for the people.
This was pushed yesterday at the first day of the petroleum segment of the mining and petroleum seminar at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby.
Corporate affairs manager of InterOil Kevin Byrne stressed this when he spoke on “partnership, prosperity and sustainability”.
He said it was not good enough to see developers such as Exxon­Mobil working in the highlands without government’s presence.
“We need their (government) capacity to come with us in this journey.
“There is a rightful expectation that all development should leave communities and individuals in a better space during and after the projects and this include employment, training, business development, and community infrastructure.
“It is not the developers’ responsibility to usurp the roles of government but rather to assist and become a partner in the process through the life of the project and beyond,” Byrne said.
The development of LNG project in Gulf province, in which InterOil is the developer, would be the greatest opportunity in the history of Gulf province but the provincial and local level government needed to improve its  capacity to cater for the large benefits it will receive.
Byrne said most people were supportive of the development.
He said the most basic services and infrastructure in Gulf province were in appalling conditions, making work challenging for those in the job.

Byrne said public servants could not be blamed for lack of service because they cannot be motivated to work in an environment where there was lack of consistent basic services and infrastructure such as electricity and banking services.
He said so far they had helped registered petroleum development licence (PDL) for landowners association.
He said in light of previous experiences with other major developers in the country, one of the recommendations he made to the government was to allocate 25% LLG entitlements to help ensure maintenance of services and avoid neglect of infrastructure.