Govt focuses on development

 THE government is more focused and committed towards a major development agenda, National Planning and Monitoring secretary Dr Peter Kora says.

“We are going to take a major step forward and change the way we do business,” he said when opening the medium-term development plan (MTDP) review workshop at the National Research Institute on Monday. 

Kora said it was high time the government’s priorities were refined and implemented on a bigger scale.

He said the 2011-13 MTDP was the government’s expenditure plan and it was necessary to collect realistic costing and provide key indicators for programmes and projects in each sector.

He said the review team was to identify development aspects for the five-year plan urging them to do realistic costing that would trickle down in the 2014 development budget.

“A project might have a life span of two years or five years so it is important to look at the project’s life cycle and do an assessment accordingly,” he said.

Kora also stressed that aid funding to PNG would now take a different approach where minor projects would no longer be entertained.

He said the government was focused on major impact project that would affect the majority of people and for aid donors to spread funds thinly to small segments of the community would be discouraged.

“If development partners can commit to one major impact project at a time, the PNG government could do another and that should help address development issues in the country,” he said.

He said MTDP was to address major projects and any other plans and projects by any organisation or sector should be a five-year plan and should be adopted under the MTDP for delivery.

He said the review team was an important focus for the government placing his trust and confidence in the team, which is comprised of senior advisors from the Prime Minister’s office, National Planning, Treasury and expert advisers from different sectors within the country and abroad.

Deputy secretary Joe Kapa also praised the review team for getting the government’s policies and directives off the ground.

“We are going down to re-enforce sectors and you are the experts that can give us a workable plan so we can give meaning to MTDP review,” he said.

The two-day workshop was for advisors and participants to discuss the MTDP structure and work out ways to develop the best outcome for the review.

The team will hold consultations with provincial governments and administrations in the four regions and NCD starting on May 6.