O’Neill praises governor

By JEFFREY ELAPA
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has applauded Southern Highlands Governor William Powi for coming up with a Master Deve­lopment Plan for his province.
In addition, O’Neill praised Powi for the assurance he would stay in the province to develop it.
O’Neill said during the swearing-in ceremony of the Southern Highlands provincial assembly last week in Mendi that the province was one of the first in the country to come up with such a plan that would guide development when huge revenues were expected to flow into the province.
He said the province would experience huge revenue when the liquefied natural gas project came into operation in 2014 and it was commendable to see plans in place to translate those revenues and other government development grants to changes in the lives of the people.
O’Neill, who is a member of the provincial assembly, said Powi was the first governor to have a master plan that would tie together all developments in the province.
He said the master development plan was integrated with the Medium Development Plans and Vision 2050, an action plan that was expected to be implemented within the next six months, with the aim of transforming the province.Powi, the former provincial administrator, said although his plan was drafted several years ago, the provincial leadership had failed to implement it.
He said he would implement his own plan as the political head of the province.
He said all the needs, ranging from schools, roads, health services, airfields and other major projects like district townships and district and ward-based developments were integrated in the plan.
He said projects throughout the province had been identified and their costs worked out.
He said they would be implemented by public servants who would be part of a new provincial administration structure that would be in place shortly.
Powi said there would be a major restructure of the provincial administration to suit the province after the separation of Hela from it.He said the plan was the only guide to development that was tied to government policies and plans and involved all partners so no one worked in isolation.