Western must plan now: Maru

INTERNATIONAL Trade and Investment Minister Richard Maru says a plan needs to be developed to sustain Western’s economy when operations at the State-owned copper mine cease in 10 years.
He was responding to questions by North Fly MP James Donald in Parliament on Friday about economic activities and foreign trade plans with bordering countries.
Donald said Western was one of the 18 economic zones that shared international borders with Indonesia and Australia.
Maru, who is also the Yangoru-Saussia MP, said in 10 years the Ok Tedi mine in Tabubil would close and this would result in the loss of K1 billion, thousands of jobs and economic revenue as well.
“We need to work together and come up with a master plan, find investors to build the economy, provide a lot of revenue to the State and the province of Western in the future,” he said. The plan, he said, was to identify appropriate strategies and structure to build and sustain the economy beyond mine closure.
“I will put my time and attention to this and I assure all the Western members and governor – we have 10 years to sort out the problem.
“One way to do that is plan to get all the resources and the stakeholders to work together before the mine closure,” he said.
Maru said Western had a big landmass and had vast economic potential in agriculture, fisheries and other economic activities.
He had requested Donald and Governor Taboi Awi Yoto to follow the consultants who had been engaged to look at various industries from next year.