No benefits from resources

PAPUA New Guinea is blessed with all the natural resources that are being harvested, oil and gas, gold, copper, timber, fish, coffee and the list goes
It is only fair that those provinces that contribute much should be given special preferences when it comes to development.
While it may have happened in the last 50 or so years, there is very little to show for it in the case of Western.
Daru is a case in point, isn’t Ok Tedi in Western and Daru the capital?
What about Madang?
What are the impacts of the Ramu Nickel project on Madang town as its provincial headquarters?
Many of the timber resource provinces have also been hard done, and the same can be said about fisheries.
Many of the provincial headquarters in this country have stood by and have actually lagged behind in infrastructure development when aligned against the major resource development taking place within its boundaries.
Coffee producing provinces in the central Highlands have fared no better, their provincial headquarters have resembled shanty towns for many years, however, it is only in the last 10 years that money from oil and gas and gold and copper from upstream provinces that has really brought some face-lift to these struggling towns.
Take Mt Hagen for instance, the face-lift is remarkable coming in from the airport into town, the development is remarkable.
While other towns have progressed in some form one way or other, Kundiawa in Chimbu remains forever the four-corner town and Wera Mori, the Chuave MP is correct when he says that upstream, the Western end provinces are way ahead in all aspects of developments and Kundiawa town is yet to see the light of day.
So much has taken place in terms of development in the last three years in the three Western end provinces of Enga, Southern Highlands and Hela indicating that these provinces have received their fair share of the funding for being host provinces to major projects
Enga is forever in the news about the things happening there.
Besides other things, all major national and provincial roads in these provinces are sealed to the very edge of the jungle.
While that may be logical to give back to the people, much of that allocation of funding has to do with who is in power and the team of power brokers around him.
The country was in the hands of two prime ministers from the Western end over the last ten years and so they have taken care of their own before others, nothing wrong with that.
Enga’s Sir Peter Ipatas is a master tactician and has not allowed any opportunity to slip by and has used these opportunities to get what he could for his people.
We hope that major towns do get a face-lift so that people will benefit from their resources by improved services to sustain their lives.

Francis Talu