K6.7 billion investment for 2021

By HELEN TARAWA
TOTAL capital investment for 2021 is K6.713 billion, an increase of K733.91 million which equates to 12 per cent compared to the 2020 appropriation of K5.98 billion, the Government says.
Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Rainbo Paita said this included the Government’s direct financing of K4.06 million, concessional loan funds of K1.638 billion and grants from development partners of K1 billion.
He said the Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme funding from project developers would complement the budget to deliver key infrastructure projects.
The sectoral distribution of the 2021 Capital Investment Budget includes:

• Administration sector– K1,484.10 million;
• Education– K255.73 million;
• Health – K642.07 million;
• Community and culture – K50.64 million;
• Law and justice – K142.34 million;
• Economic – K427.88 million;
• Transport – K1,948.94 million;
• utilities – K365.81 million;
• Provinces –K1,396.40 million which includes provincial and district services improvement programmes (SIPs) of K1,110 million.

Paita said SIPs budget took up 16.5 per cent of the total capital investment budget appropriation.
He said 2021 national budget was the second full budget of the Marape Government and the second last budget to fund the medium-term development plan 2018-2022 investment priorities.
“The 2021 Budget is underpinned by the prime minister’s broad development agenda of “taking back PNG” and “making PNG the richest black Christian nation by 2030.
“This agenda complements the medium term development plan III policy priorities and strategically aligns to PNG Vision 2050 and sets the parameters around the framing of the 2021 Capital Investment Budget,” he said.
“The Marape Government’s focus is on delivering quality services to the provinces and districts based on the comparative advantages and the economic potentials that each of these provinces and districts have.”