PM: Govt committed

PRIME Minister James Marape says the Government is continuing to make interventions to ease the economic burden on Papua New Guineans.
He said the Government was continuing to give incentives to help citizens even while it was often under extreme pressure such as navigating through the Coronavirus-induced local and international economic contractions, and the Ukraine-Russia war and its effects on inflation.
“I want to give assurance to our people that in these hard economic times, we are doing our absolute best to spread the development Kina right across the country and keep the economy afloat,” Marape said in a statement.
“Our small import-dependent economy has gone through a lot of stress from internal issues and global ones.
“As a people-focused government, we are conscious of all these, and putting in our absolute best and making interventions where it matters most.”
Recent examples of this, he said, were in natural disasters in East Sepik and Chimbu where Government was working with provinces and districts to respond immediately in relief, and man-made disasters such as the Jan 10 mayhem where Government stepped in to help rebuild affected businesses.
Marape said his Government continued to make interventions in education where it was paying the bulk of school fees for secondary education; alleviating project fees in public schools; subsiding higher education through scholarship programmes (Hecas/Tesas) and school loan schemes (HELP).
“Our other intervention of lifting the non-paying threshold to K20,000 is the highest any government has made. Last time, in as many years, has been lingering at K12,500,” he said.
“We are currently disbursing District Services Improvement Programme funds at 40 per cent mark to ensure development runs.
“Our government, on record, has given more incentives to more people in tough times than any other government of the past.
“We are doing our absolute best to make sure that we help.”
Marape said with the full restoration of the board and management of the Central Bank, the Government expected a better interplay between its fiscal and monetary policies.