Tourism authorities sign pact to improve services

By ROSELYN ELLISON
A Memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority (PNGTPA) and the East New Britain tourism authority was signed on Friday.
The signing was held in Kokopo with ENB administrator Wilson Matava as well as Kokopo MP and Minister for Tourism Emil Tammur present for the event.
According to PNGTPA chief executive officer Jerry Agus, PNGTPA is the Government’s mandated state agency in the country to develop tourism products, policies and regulations and also initiate implement tourism projects as well as promote tourism.
Agus said the MoU explained that the Government had secured K20mil loan from the World Bank and is implementing tourism service development programme through TPA as an implementing agency in East New Britain and Milne Bay.
He said the aim of the project was to improve tourism services in these two provinces by, strengthening institutional and policy frameworks at the national, provincial and
local level government and supporting the development of integrated tourism destinations in province.
“Part of the project funds has been used to purchase the vehicle to assist in the project implementation in East New Britain,” he said.
He said purchase of the vehicle would enable easy supervision and management of projects in East New Britain in terms of saving cost on vehicle hire.