Officers find way forward for town

KAVIENG is the capital of New Ireland but it is sad to see that the town does not portray and reflect its name tag bilas peles, mayor Stanley Mansini says.
He said this when addressing a meeting between senior officers from the Kokopo Vunamami LLG in East New Britain and Kavieng Urban LLG on Monday at the Kokopo town hall.
“Kavieng is well known by the tag bilas peles.
“We want to make bilas peles in our town and culture and environment that should provide cash flow through tourism internationally and locally. But this is not the case,” he said.
Mansini led his four senior officers to Kokopo this week on a fact minding mission to learn from Kokopo’s experiences and chart a way forward for Kavieng in delivering services.
Kokopo is currently the fourth town to gain city status and provides services to 30,000 people in the Kokopo-Vunamami Urban LLG.
Mansini said funding was a major issue they faced in their efforts to facilitate and provide reasonable services to meet the town council’s responsibilities to residents.
The Kavieng Urban LLG hosts the Kavieng town and its administrative centre, the court house and other government agencies.
He said budgetary cuts in the mining royalties grant and the eighty per cent cut of local level governments Services Improvement Programme grants placed them in a tough financial situation in delivering the needed services.