Kwa: PNG has not given enough attention to ocean

DEPARTMENT of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) secretary Dr Eric Kwa, pictured, says PNG has not been considering the ocean among its resource sectors and paying little or no attention to it.
“We have been talking about forest, mining and all the other resources, forgetting about the ocean,” he said.
“For some reason, since independence, we have not been able to attend to this very big elephant that has been in the room all these years.”
Kwa said this during a two-day National Oceans Forum which began yesterday in Port Moresby intended for discussions on the development of the new National Oceans Policy.
The first National Oceans Policy which is being developed by DJAG and other stakeholders is designed to protect the ocean and its resources and is expected to be rolled out in January next year, according to Kwa.
He said a directive had come from the Government for the policy to be submitted to the National Executive Council before it was tabled in Parliament.
“The instruction from the Government is that they want the policy to be completed by next month (November) and it will go to cabinet to be fully implemented by 2020,” he said.
“This particular policy is really important to all of us.
“It was supposed to have been done in 2015 but for some reason work was not able to be progressed until this year.
“We have been working hard behind the scenes and we have also shared this document internationally as well for our international partners to give us feedback.”
However, a big policy cannot capture everything and there are still room for improvement in the policy even after it is implemented, Kwa said.
He said they needed to get the input of communities, provincial government and district authorities.