Govt seeks greater cooperation with donors

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister for Works, Sam Abal met heads of key donor agencies to see their alignment and understanding of the national government development agendas.
The key aid agencies representated were from the Asian Development Bank, AusAID and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.
The aid coordination office of the National Planning Department also attended the briefing session.
In welcoming the representatives Abal explained the government’s development budget and its implementation strategy.
He appealed to the donors for their appreciation and understanding of dealing with Papua New Guineans.
He said the implementation strategy of government that he pronounced recently was factored against the development strategic plans, the medium term development strategy and the Vision 2050.
He said he wanted external aid to be aligned so the achievements were measurable in the various implementation targets that had been earmarked to be delivered at the beginning of the implementation plan of the first decade of the development timeline.
During the meeting, the donor agencies were given the opportunity to express their views on constraints they had encountered in their inter-actions with the government.
On the part of the donor agencies, the issues they believed were good for a closer and more productive relationship, were related to counter-part funding and their desire to see the  government’s commitment in fulfilling its part.
Abal told the donors to keep an open dialogue with the department secretary on any constraints they would encounter so that similar briefing sessions could be organised to address them.
“In this way, the government, through the national planning committee, which I am the chairman of, will be able to have a pulse on where development aid is targeted, which aid agency is involved and the real value for money of the deliverable that are being packaged for PNG.
“Sector by sector, the government will know precisely how we are doing with the help of the donors within the infrastructure sector, including our social indices, particularly in education, capacity building and health,” he said.