Hela landowners urged to develop province

THE landowners of the newly-declared Hela province have been urged to go back and invest in the new province to help its development.
Member for Komo-Margarima Francis Potape said during a media conference organised by the Hela Transitional Authority that Hela people should help in developing the new province.
Parliament this week approved the Electoral Boundary Commission’s submission to declare Hela and Jiwaka as the country’s two newest provinces.
Potape said the people of Hela should now take ownership of the new province.
He said millions of kina given by the government to the landowners were spent in Port Moresby but they should now change by returning to the province and invest there.
Potape urged youths and the people of Hela living in other parts of the country to change their attitude and behaviour.
“Do not touch other people from other parts of PNG at the Gordon market or any other places as the
people of Hela owe every Papua New Guinean for giving us a new
province through their respective
representatives,’’ he said.
“We have to appreciate them and change ourselves.”
Meanwhile, the managing director of Trans Wonderlands, Larry Andagali, urged Hela leaders to unite and form a bigger construction company to develop Hela.
He said there were plant and earth equipment bought through the public funds for the three electorates of Koroba-Lake Kopiago, Tari-Pori and Komo-Margarima.
“These equipment should be owned by a single large construction company so that all contracts could be given to it to allow the money to remain in the province.”
He said if such arrangement became fruitful, then foreign companies would leave.
He said Trans Wonderland was the single largest transport company in the Pacific, fully engaged in the development of Hela and Southern Highlands.
He said it was owned by the landowners of Southern Highlands and Hela and, therefore, a similar company could be established by the three districts to build roads and other facilities in the new province.