Papua New Guinea’s parliament overwhelmingly voted for former Finance Minister James Marape to become the country’s new prime minister. Marape was sworn in on 30 May 2019 after securing 101 out of 111 votes in parliament. He has been critical of recent deals with major global gas companies, and has expressed concern that the full economic benefits of such resource deals will not reach the poor. Murape said he doesn’t intend to change their investors, but to encourage them. He said he will look into maximizing gain from what God has given their country in the form of natural resources. He added that this is all about placing the country in the right place and taking back the economy.
In his maiden speech, he declared he wanted PNG to be “the richest black Christian nation” in the world and committed to reviewing resource laws. Marape had led a series of high-profile defections from the former government, and had raised concerns about key projects, including the recently negotiated $US13 billion ($18.8 billion) Papua LNG project, which is set to double exports.
“We’re not here to break legally binding project agreements but those project agreements must be sanctioned by law, if they have every tick ticked off, as prescribed by laws governing our nation, then they will stand the test of scrutiny,” he said. “But if we find that any project agreement, whether it’s PNG LNG project, or any project for that matter that has not fully prescribed provisions of law, then we are open to review and scrutinising it. ….. Eighty per cent of this country still locked in the enclaves of rural entrapment. Those of us in cities are enjoying and yet they are stuck up there. They deserve to be lifted.”
Speaking 26 September 2021 at the UN General Assembly, James Marape noted his country’s struggles with Covid. Community transmission is now widespread in many PNG provinces, and the Delta variant is gaining a foothold, with local health systems becoming overwhelmed.
Marape said PNG’s partners had been of great help to it during the pandemic to date, including Japan, New Zealand, India, China, the US and Australia. But he said PNG required further support for its national advocacy and awareness of the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines.
“We advocate for global efforts in curbing misinformation that has resulted in low rates of vaccintion in our country, especially the Facebook misinformation that keeps going on in public space.” Marape also called for global co-operation to improve access to Covid vaccines in countries where they are most needed.
Marape said he hoped industrialised countries will help PNG to conserve its great biodiversity by mitigating the threat climate change poses. He suggests that global climate fund institutions who repeatedly tell PNG to preserve its native forests should in exchange finance basic services in his country.
Marape pointed out that although PNG has a large land mass, it has close to 600 outlying islands and was qualified to speak about climate change. “We were the first country in the world to relocate climate change refigees, from the Carteret Islands. Papua New Guinea, including the 15 other smaller Island States in the Pacific, do not emit a lot of carbon into the atmosphere and yet they are paying the price,” he said.
PNG has struggled to contain illegal logging over recent decades, but the government is seeking more benefits from licensed logging, with Marape recently telling foreign logging companies to start downstream processing activities in PNG or leave the country. “Our rainforest is the oxygen factory of the world, therefore, it is a global asset. To conserve, we must all work together to find a balance that will preserve the rainforest while improving livelihood.”
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Source link : https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/oceania/png-politics-2019.htm
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Publish date : 2022-06-29 03:00:00
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