Lae and Finsch road gets K500,000

By GABRIEL LAHOC
A PROPOSED highway to connect Finschhafen district to Lae, Morobe, yesterday received K500,000 funding from the provincial government.
Sike Minziong, managing director of contracted company Minziong Ltd, was presented a cheque in Lae by acting Morobe provincial administrator Geowing Bilong and Deputy Governor Morokoi Gaiwaita.
That paves the way for construction to go ahead after the company had privately started work a year ago.
This arrangement is under the government’s public-private partnership.
The government recognises the highway as part of the economic corridor.
Gaiwata said the national government, through the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, had already approved counter funding for it.
Finschhafen MP Theodore Zurenuoc had committed K500,000 to the contractor to work on that highway, which will be a major boost for the rural communities of Finschhafen, Kabwum and Nawaeb district.
Before the State backing, Minziong had already covered 18km of the highway – from Labuta local level government area and ending at Buem in the Burum Kuat LLG of Nawaeb district.
Gaiwata said it was the provincial government’s priority to connect the province, and “this highway will compliment several others in other districts which have already been budgeted for this year for construction to resume”.
“This occasion is significant for Morobe because the rural population of Morobe is cut off from Lae as the industrial hub,” Gaiwaita said.
He said this approach should be supported and implemented by Morobe leaders who should be elected by this year.