Let’s get our numbers right, says O’Neill

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BY CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says the national census planned for 2021 will go ahead and he will make sure it is successful.
“We will make sure every human being in the country is counted. And I can assure you that it will not fail under my watch, like the past census,” he said.
O’Neill launched the PNG Strategy for the Development of Statistic Plan (2018-2027) at the Stanley Hotel and Suites, in Port Moresby, on Thursday night.
“We have been operating in the dark for quite some time,” he said.
“Dark, meaning that we are just guessing the population and building infrastructure like road, schools, health centres in areas that have less population while there are no infrastructure in areas that have large populations.”
He also wants to see an improvement in the national identification project.
“We must have the right census data so we can make the right decision in planning for our future generation.”
He said the Government should find out why projects such as the national census and national identification failed.
“We need to have the correct data to plan well. I get data about our country from foreigners. I know that the data is wrong,” he said.
“We keep on saying that 85 per cent of our population live in rural areas. But there are about one million in Port Moresby, 350,000 in Lae, 250,000 in
Mt Hagen and Kokopo.
“And what about other urban centres? So I believe there are about two million in urban areas already. Sometimes we just believe data collected so many years ago, not knowing that many things have changed already.”