Govt pledges rapid progress under devt plan

THE government is committed to making rapid progress towards the millennium development goals as stated in its medium-term development plan 2011-15, which integrates the national MDG targets and indicators.
The 2012 development budget contained a number of programmes directly addressing the MDGs, including the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Plan (K8 million) and the social development programme (K20 million), which allocates funds to the churches and civil society, organisations to assist with projects on health and education.
Support for local level governments had also been included for the first time.
This includes K12 million for the local level government capacity building programme and K1.8 million to support the village recorders.
The government had made commitments totalling  K901.9 million it must meet next year through the development budget.
They were as follows: loan counterpart funding – K173.3 million; special support grants – K88.1 million; district support grants – K54.5 million;  and memorandums of agreement – K18 million.
A further K120 million had been allocated towards the umbrella benefit sharing agreement (UBSA) infrastructure development grant.
A total K50 million was for high impact projects in the Southern Highlands.
The government said the fundings were necessary because of the importance of the PNG LNG project.
The government will honour its commitment of K500 million over five years for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville’s restoration and development grants, with an allocation of K100 million next year.