Governor-General Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae highlighted government’s commitment in developing key infrastructure, such as roads, airports, airstrips and information technology, among other aspects, in his official address to Parliament yesterday, adding, these are necessary to grow the economy.
“Connecting our people through infrastructure development in the next five years is necessary to grow our economy and facilitate efficient and cost-effective service deliver.”.
He added, the Government is focused on ensuring key infrastructure such as roads, airports, airstrips, wharves and ports are established and made operational to ensure movement of people, and access to services and businesses.
“Equally important are services such as information technology, electricity and internet connectivity which the Government is focused on delivering to our people throughout the country.”
Sir Bob added that regular power blackouts experienced throughout the country should be another priority, and become a thing of the past, under the Marape/Rosso government.
He further stated that with the aftermath of COVID-19 and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the immediate focus must be to address high costs of living brought about as a result of increased world prices on oil and gas.
“Targeting broad based economic growth by increasing the number of our population in the production of goods and services and downstream processing, will not only grow our economy, but importantly, benefit our people to earn an income during these difficult times.”
Sir Bob further emphasised the need to fully implement the small to medium enterprise (SME) policy to meet our people’s aspirations.
“We have praised ourselves enough about the abundance in natural resources we as a nation are blessed with,” adding, “Now is the time to invest in these resources for the benefit of our people and our nation,” His Excellency Sir Bob said.