Plantations won’t be sold: MP

By ROSELYN ELLISON
MORE than 30 rundown plantations in Pomio, East New Britain (ENB), will not be offered for sale.
This was revealed by local MP Elias Kapavore.
He said his district development authority (DDA) wanted to utilise those plantations to push the Government’s focus on small to medium enterprises (SME) in agriculture and tourism.
Speaking about concerns of those plantations being sold to foreign business such as the Tokiala Plantation in Gazelle, Kapavore said ENB authorities should take stock of the rundown plantations.
He also said ENB authorities should come up with innovative solutions to have inclusive partnership with the landowners to develop those plantations.
Kapavore said plantations sold by provincial authorities showed their serious lack of concern for the indigenous people’s inheritance, especially from the rural majority.
He insisted that ENB people should be given the opportunity to be engaged in inclusive economic planning and building up of societies to improve the standard of their living.
Kapavore also explained that the Pomio district development authority was in the process of taking stock of all the district’s plantations by revisiting and verifying plantation titles.
“Any titles found to have been obtained through fraudulent means will be challenged by the DDA,” he said.
Hence, Kapavore urged all five local level government managers and their presidents to support the call.
Land is the people’s inheritance and so the government should invest and add value to it to contribute to the communities’ well-being, he said.