LAE’S INTEREST FIRST – The Booming Hub of PNG’s Economy
While critics of Lae Member elect John Rosso will be twiddling their fingers and twisting their tongues making negative criticisms on why he is yet to make up his mind on which political camp to join, wait there’s something you’ve missed.
Lae City is not just the capital of Morobe, but it is the
heartbeat of Papua New Guinea. It is where the majority of businesses
flourished with the Pacific’s second largest seaport operations and the gateway
to the resource rich Highlands region. Lae is the home of several tuna
canneries, agriculture and gold export companies for the last 30 years but the
depilating state of infrastructures, growing illegal settlements and the law
and order problems spurred by high unemployment and lack of tertiary education
opportunities leaves a lot to be questioned given it’s contributions to the
government coffers.
Lae’s growing challenges lies with equal distribution of
wealth to all its citizens including the indigenous and traditional landowners
who have embraced the government’s development agenda for almost 50years.
There are many unanswered questions on why Lae has gone back
in terms of service provision and economic liability that has been enjoyed back
in the 1970s and 80s. The millions of kina generated out of Lae over the last
decades have somewhat being mismanaged, thus leaving the once favored economic
and industrial hub to crawl on it’s knees.
There are issues with Lae’s city boundaries, which are
shared with Huon Gulf and Nawaeb districts. The boundaries will have to be
extended towards the Bumbu and Busu Rivers and Nadzab to enable services will
be rendered effectively and efficiently under the proposed Lae City Commission.
That is why important decisions to do with its political heads needs to be
properly scrutinized in order to make a decision which will benefit the greater
majority of Lae’s population.
John Rosso following his declaration as the new member for
Lae has a massive task ahead to set the foundation to all these outlying
issues. Five years cannot be enough to solve all of Lae’s issues, but given the
drive and an effective administration under his chairmanship Lae can stand up
from it’s knees.
Political horse-trading that is currently in progress can be
seen as an opportunity for Lae to be integrated in the new government’s
development plan (despite a number of commitments made by the previous
governments that were never fulfilled).
Rosso’s alliance with major political parties (excluding
PNC) must represent the best interest of his voters, the people of Lae. That is
the reason for Rosso’s absence from the political camps in Alotau, Goroka and
Kokopo. This doesn’t mean he wont choose either of them, but he will do so with
careful considerations on what the Goroka and Kokopo camps have to offer to
serve the people of Lae.
In a long run, Mr Rosso need a party that will focused on the economic stability of our nation.
ReplyDeleteThanks SG for this great information... Good luck Mr Rosso make sure don't sit on the oopposition side.