NCD hosts regional mayors meet

ISSUES affecting the capitals of five South Pacific countries are being discussed at the third Commonwealth urban local-level governments forum (CULLGF) for Pacific islands which is being held in Port Moresby.
Project manager Karibaiti Taoaba said yesterday that they would also discuss waste management, informal settlement/land tenure, impact of urbanisation, law and order, unemployment, transport planning and management, and impacts of global economical slow down.
These were issues raised at the last meeting in Nadi, Fiji, in 2007.
“This forum is to bring officials of all the five capital cities together and share their experiences because there are a lot of problems and no one country could solve them alone,” Ms Taoaba said.
“We need to say what kind of a city we want in the Pacific in the future and also try to look at ways of how best we can stay in touch with each other.”   
Ms Taoaba said the visiting mayors and urban officials will tour Port Moresby tomorrow, at the invitation of National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop, to get a first hand experience of what he and his management team had done for Port Moresby.
“The forum has realised that cities are the main engines of social and economical development in a country.
“From the tour we hope to bring to light some guidelines and suggestions in our organisation and also assist financially where necessary,” she said.
Urban representatives from Fiji, Honiara, Port Vila and Tuvalu flew in yesterday for the two-day conference.
Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, and the Cook Islands, which are also CULLGF members, did not send representatives to attend this meeting.
This is the first time Papua New Guinea is hosting the forum, the first was in Suva, Fiji, in 2006 followed by Nadi in 2007.
Ms Taoaba said at the Nadi meeting, members raised issues affecting the city and how they could best help by sharing their experiences and learning from them.
The CULLGF is a meeting for all the mayors and chief executive officers.