20th December 2020
There are has been concerns raised recently regarding the Building of Fisheries Industrial Park on Daru Island by a Chinese Fishing Giant.
Firstly let me start off by saying, why why do we keep voting in leaders and demand us for development. Do you expect us to develop the Province with the little we get from DSIP, PSIP, and resource benefits from whatever we get from the few resource extraction from the Province like Ok Tedi alone. If every one of you were in my shoe, you would understand the amount of financial resources I have at my disposal and the wish list of expectations you demand my government to deliver to you, the roads, the classrooms, the hospitals, etc etc. Yes we are not so poor, we have some money stored away, like in PNGSDP but that’s not at my disposal and they don't even listen to us. To me, it’s a grand scam of the century in the name of WP established by BHP and their friends for themselves and not for WP.
Many of us have continued to ask, why do we call ourselves a resource-rich Province yet we are so poor.? Yes we are a resource-rich Province but we need to convert those resources into monetary terms and use those funds to build better hospitals, schools, roads, create employment opportunities, improve the HDI, improve GDP improve our living standards etc. Thus, we as your leaders are challenged to think outside of the box. We just concluded a vote of no confidence, basically those of us who stood with Hon. James Marape, MP, PM, wanted to see an increase in benefits from our resource by tweaking, turning, and amending laws. That's thinking out of the current colonial introduce norm. But if we want to remain the same then let's forget everything, let's stop talking about change, let’s stop talking about electing good leaders who can bring development, let’s stop demanding leaders to think outside of the box to bring about developments etc etc. But if we want change, we must also prepare for the challenges that the change we aspire will bring.
Many times we have questioned how Singapore, a suburb of Malaysia cum country, that had nothing but is the leading financial center of the world today. We wish we should be like Singapore but how we do that is the question? Do we just expect miracles? NO we have to make it happen? And yes, we have the potential to make it happen. But how? Well, it’s not new, we have to learn from the experience of places like Singapore or Rwandan, and see how it has worked there.
For Singapore, realizing, their ideal location, they developed economic policies to allow foreign direct investment with favorable economic investment incentives. These foreign direct investment incentives attracted multinational cooperation to invest in Singapore not at will and whim but with respect to the laws of the land and its people. They advocated their strategic trading and investment location as a position of strength to potential multinational investors. As investment increased, it created employment opportunities, increased local, subnational, and national revenue base, improved their living standards, increase the GDP etc. Singapore didn't wait for their former colonizers and its sympathizers of being an underdeveloped country than to provide it with aid donors and the little resource it had to build Singapore.
Since I got elected, I have continued to advocate WP as a strategic economic investment hub. I have advocated for WP to have a Deep Seaport, to have Sustainable Fisheries Park, Sustainable Agricultural & Livestock hub, Tourism, Forestry and Petroleum Park. I have had potential investors visit WP from China, Australia, US, Russia, Malaysia alike to name a few. In all my meetings with these potential investors, I have kept an open mind, regardless of whether they were investment friends from the West or from the East. And few investors have seen WP as a strategic Investment Location and has shown interest on investment in the Daru Deep seaport, the fisheries park, and Agriculture, Petroleum Park on the mainland. It happens to be that two, Chinese investors have actually shown serious interest in WP, one for developing Daru Deep Sea Port and the other in the Fisheries Park on Daru Island. A US/Aus based company has also made a serious commitment for an Agro-Forestry Project covering parts of North and Middle Fly. (This is in a more advanced stage as I write this piece) .
What do I do to these investors who have shown keen interest to invest in our Province after advocating for it? Well, I have to provide a platform to promote these foreign direct investment for these investors to make serious investment commitments. I am also aware of conspiracies created by naysayers when such huge investments are about to be made, even many of us have these notions of leaders having interest. Well, I will let the future and anyone in their current generation to judge my interest in these endeavors, whether it’s for personal or communal. We only live once, unless eternal life is something money can buy, I can declare my interest for such interest in these projects. Having said that, I'd like to vouch that we must not allow their enemies to be our enemies. We are Province in a sovereign nation of our own. We have the potential to be a country of our own in a county, we have an opportunity to be like Rwanda, Dubai, or Singapore unless we decide not to do so. Do we want to kill the shoot from germination or let it grow and see the fruit there off. Whether the fruit thereof is sweet or sour depends on how we carve it out today. Having used the analogy of the germination, let me give you a few facts so that you can make fair comments to direct my thoughts going forward from here on.
1. Firstly your PEC which I sit as the chairman has approved for me to sign the MOU for the establishment of Fisheries Park in WP, which I did on behalf of the Provincial Government.
2. Secondly, its an MOU thus, it's not legally binding as yet. The MOU is to allow the Chinese Investor interested in developing the Fisheries Park to do their due diligence (feasibility studies) before they make a final investment decision. In their due diligence process, they will do community or resource owner consultations. They will consult the impacted resource/landowners, the LLGs, the DDA and the Provincial Government. If we all agree in principle then we will sign and MOA, which will be legally binding for to the Daru Fisheries Park Project to eventually start. At this juncture, I can give you the assurance that your Provincial Government will agree to what the lower level consultation have agreed to. In that I mean, the concurrence reach by majority resource/landowners, LLGs, DDA,. Everyone will have the opportunity to take or leave the opportunity.
Let me also appeal to everyone to make an independent but informed judgment and should not be influenced, coerced by people who do not want to see us progress as a Province in a Sovereign Nation. The enemies of our friends should not be our enemies too. Their competition for geopolitics in the Pacific is an opportunity for WP to harness our development aspirations. We have a perfect opportunity right here presenting itself for us to leverage upon. By the way, did we just raised their eyebrows, yes we did? Ok, if so let’s see if they are genuine, I seriously do not think so. They have been here since colonization but have done nothing much to improve our lifestyle. All they want is for us to remain the same and continue to be a buffer for their comfort at the cost of our opportunity to advance our development aspirations. Remember that world war never reached Australia, we were their buffer and what have we got in returned. The boomerang AID?
When we went to school, we were thought in school that Indonesians were bad people and we should not do business with them. An ideology or propaganda introduced into our minds at an early age so that we can continue to remain like the way we were then and today. Now look, who owns the Freeport Mine in West Papua, see which country is the largest exporter of beef into Indonesia markets. It's them, our colonizers. Now they don't want us to do business with China. Can someone tell me where is Australia exporting their products to. It's China if it’s so, why can't we export our products to China too?
My people, the naysayers have an interest to protect, first and foremost they need to protect the market place for their products in China and in the Asian markets. Because they know that we will one day be a strong competitor to their products in the market place. Because of our strategic position to the biggest market, the Asian market, we have a competitive advantage, it’s something they fear. Our advancement agendas are detrimental to their economy. Thus, as you watch, see who is coming with clean hands and clean intend. They will use us and others to run propagandas to defeat us as their potential competitors. They will raise concerns on Environmental Issues,, Security Issues, and Sustainable Resource Management Issues to try and gain our favor and defeat our dreams and aspirations to have a living standard like that of theirs. So, should we subscribe to their propaganda and support our colonizer's wish for us to continue to remain the way we are today or carve out our own future. We have a choice.
As your leader, I will listen and observe carefully to genuine opinions, views, advice, criticism, and the negativities raised by naysayers but I am not a supporter of those who want us to remain the same. That's the sole, reason why I contested and you gave me your mandate to advocate change. In saying so, I am not a supporter or a friend of multinational cooperation that does not have a heart to equally share the benefits from our resources, respect the laws of our land, that's not conscious of the environment and resource sustainability with respect to my people’s livelihood are concern as we adapt to challenges of potential change.
My people let’s take every opportunity to carve out our future, the future that we aspire, using our strategic position to the Asian Markets and our huge resource potential that we have which are on-demand starting with getting access to the Chinese market presented by this opportunity to build a Fisheries Industrial Park, in Daru, Western Province, Papua New Guinea.
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