Vision 2050 connects centres

 FOR some time now we have been agonising over just exactly how the government will deliver the Vision 2050 goals.

The goals are fine but we do not see the steps to get to them. 

We do not see the year by year or five years by five years programmes to get to them.

There sits the Vision 2050 goals up at the top. Then we have the Development Strategies Programme 2030 sitting there in the middle and we have the Medium Term Development Strategies sitting down there at the bottom. 

And, of course, we have the annual money plans in the budgets which involve the most realistic of the plans since here we can see specific plans, targets and resources including money allocated for their achievement.

How to link those goals, strategies and budgets together with very real programmes has been the missing link thus far.

And last week Prime Minister Peter O’Neill finally told a meeting of all departmental heads of the missing link, the bridge to link strategies to the vision.

He told them what he wanted to see in the country by the time PNG celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence in 2025. That is a mere 12 years away and halfway to 2050.

O’Neill said by then the country would have a number of first class universities, hospitals, and highways. He said all cities and towns would be fully functioning with reliable and affordable telecommunications, electricity supply, water and sewerage services.

Most importantly he is committing resources immediately this year and plotting a realistic path that is designed to get PNG there.

According to the PM, half of PNG’s population will be living in towns and cities. Port Moresby’s population will expand to a million, Lae to about 750,000 and Mt Hagen about the same.

While it is idealistic to want people to remain in their village communities, the reality is that the steady flow of people to towns and cities in search of better opportunities and a better standard of living will continue unabated and increase, O’Neill said. 

Government has to plan for this. And it has to.

O’Neill unveiled to the department heads that his government was going to develop four super cities in Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen and Kokopo. Port Moresby will be the commercial and administrative hub, Lae will be the industrial city, Mt Hagen will be the agricultural city and Kokopo will be the tourism capital of the country.

Hundreds of millions of kina is going to be poured into these cities to equip them so that they are able to cater for an increased population and to serve their proposed purposes.

Already money has been committed and more will be in the budgets of the next decade to upgrade the hospitals and in the case or Lae build an entirely new one, to upgrade roads, expand universities, and spend on improving services such as electricity supply, water and sewerage and telecommunication facilities.

The two halves of the country will be connected for the first time with the Highlands Highway linking Southern Highlands province to the Gulf. 

There are only 20km left. A few kilometres of road building also remains to connect East New Britain to West New Britain also, the Prime Minister said.

Only 30km of the Buluminski Highway in New Ireland remains to be upgraded and sealed.  

Port Moresby will be connected to Alotau, Milne Bay and to Gulf to meet the Highlands Highway.

Tokua Airport in East New Britain will be expanded to take in bigger aircrafts from international destinations. Fuel tax exemptions on flights to Narita, Japan and to Cairns and Brisbane in Australia will help lower airfares to attract tourists into Kokopo from where they can then be distributed to other destinations in the country.

Similar tax concessions are being proposed to attract big hotel, motel developers to Kokoko to build up tourist infrastructure in the province, O’Neill said.

Similar moves are afoot for Port Moresby, Lae, and Mt Hagen. 

There will be another second tier cities which will be developed in Goroka, Madang and Wewak.

All of these will not be done at the expense of other provinces and towns, O’Neill said but he is a realist enough to realise that the country does not have the resources for that kind of saturation exercise. 

Concentrate on only a few, get them done and move to others. 

For the rest the District Services Improvement Program, the Provincial Services Improvement Program and other funding under the budget will be maintained at the same or increased levels, the PM said.

Finally we get the feeling that achieving 2050 is not only a pie in the sky dream but that it is doable. That is a nice feeling.