PNG needs more surveyors

By HELEN TARAWA
PNG needs more registered surveyors for the Government’s proposal to free up 20 per cent of customary land, Lands and Physical Planning acting Secretary Luther Sipison says.
He told The National that the Government will be freeing up to 20 per cent of customary land through a review of the Land Act.
“When you talk about freeing up 20 per cent of customary land, who’s going to do these surveys? Who’s going to certify them,” Sipison said.
“You need qualified surveyors to conduct the surveys.
“In a civilised world, if you look at the customary land, 97 per cent of land that is out there, no investor is going to invest in if it is not surveyed, not demarcated and if they don’t have a title to it.
“The three per cent government land is now going to be scarce. That’s why it (Government) wants to release 20 per cent out of the 90 per cent by 2050.
“So who is going to free up this land? Nobody will do it. The surveyors have to survey this land. That’s what they did in the dawn of this nation.
“That’s what the colonial administration did; they came and surveyed Mt Hagen, Kainantu, Lae, Port Moresby. That’s why we enjoy the three per cent of government land now. Someone did the survey.”
Sipison said under the law, there were State leases for 99 years under which the land belongs to the Government. The crown owns the mother title and the lands department only issues leases.
“We are proposing that we should cut back on the terms of the lease to 50 to 60 years,” he said.
“Business Council of PNG has enjoyed many years of this 99-year lease. The nation is changing, our country is changing. We have to come up with laws that benefit our people and not just a few rich people and big companies.”