Hundreds brave bad weather for flag-raising ceremony

By CHARLES MOI
HUNDREDS of people, including children, braved the cold rainy weather in Port Moresby on Sunday morning to witness the flag-raising ceremony at Independence Hill to mark the 43rd Independence anniversary.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said there were promising times ahead for the national economy after the recent global economic downturn.
“Commodity prices have rebounded, the long drought has passed, and we are recovering from the tragic earthquake,” O’Neill said.
“In our country when we face challenges, we all pull together, including our Government, and we have introduced a number of reforms that places us in a stronger position.
“But we must not relax. We must continue to work hard. There are countries around the world that achieved their independence at around the same time as we did.”
He said many of those countries had seen “dramatic economic growth and huge improvements in the living standards of their people”.
“Our country should today be like those countries, but we have not taken advantages of all of the opportunities we have had,” O’Neill said.
“We must better adapt to the changing global economic circumstances. We must take advantage of every economic opportunities that are available to our people.”
O’Neill said the “eyes of the world will be on PNG as it hosts the Apec Leaders’ Summit for the first time”.
“The leaders from Apec’s 21 member countries and around 15,000 delegates are visiting Papua New Guinea this year,” he said.
“So far we have held more than 250 meetings around our country. The global investment community will have the opportunity to see the tremendous growth that is taking place in our country.”