Tuvalu eyes K5mil grant commitment

 By MERESEINI MARAU

THE government of Tuvalu is looking forward to the K5 million grant to be given by the PNG government.

Minister for Treasury Don Polye has assured the Tuvalu government that it would look at the commitment it had made to them in the past.

Polye met with Tuvalu’s deputy Prime Minister and acting Minister of Finance and Economic Development Kausea Natano during the 46th annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank in New Delhi last week.

Polye said he would look into this issue when he returned to Port Moresby.

Apart from the grant, the two ministers discussed how they could assist each other.

Polye extended the invitation to the small island state to send her people to PNG for employment opportunities.

He said labour mobility was crucial especially at this time when the Pacific Island leaders were trying to promote regional integration.

With PNG trying to reiterate its role as a big brother in the region, Poyle said it was important that his country look to assisting the other countries in the region.

As an acting Minister for Higher Education, Poyle also invited Tuvalu students to come and study in PNG. 

Natano said they should get a memorandum of understanding between the two countries which would state ways they could help one another.

He thanked PNG for its commitment to help them, saying they were looking forward to that grant.

Natano said they had witnessed how the Asian region had grown over the years and he was optimistic that PNG’s assistance would help them grow too.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that while the Asia and Pacific region was growing more than 8% annually over two decades, there were stark differences across and within the countries in the region.