Islands Post
§ Thursday 30th September, 2010
Panguna mine answer to reviving economy
BOUGAINVILLE seriously needs a major impact project to pump its economy back to reality especially when the region has less than 10 years already towards referendum and independence, Bougainville Affairs Minister Fidelis Semoso said. And Mr Semoso says the Bougainville copper mine is an ideal answer for Bougainville’s economy, provided all issues are sorted out quickly and the Autonomous Bougainville Government in conjunction with the National Government address the issues surrounding it. Mr Semoso has been singing out everywhere that Bougainville can boast about the cocoa and coconut it has, or the marine resources it brags about, but the autonomous government still needs the copper mine to re-open so that all problems on economy of the region can be solved. “Yes, revenue from copra and cocoa before the crisis used to bring to Bougainville’s economy K60 to K70 million a year. “We also speak about seven other mines not yet operated in Bougainville and many more things that we talk about that can bring money into Bougainville. “These new mines will take may be 10 years, agriculture can help but not so much at this time, the Panguna mine will take about three to five years and surely we can get back to where we were or better before the crisis. “Our education system has gone really down, our health services are just picking up, classrooms in all remote and town schools are run down, no libraries or no computer labs and we seriously need an impact project like the mine to get us back to our feet, this time more than what he used to gain before the crisis,” Mr Semoso said. Semoso echoed how the Bougainville Copper Agreement was still one of the best blue prints in place and appealed for all stakeholders in PNG and the ABG to come together and seriously address the BCL issue so that real development can start taking place. He said it was a serious matter for the landowners and the PNG Government should seriously come to one table and review the Agreement or talk about the issues at stake so they see what they can do. Mr Semoso is planning on making a visit to meet with the landowners and stakeholders of Panguna to seek first hand their views. He wants to do that before the getting to the National Government for any updates. |