NOVEMBER 30 2021
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has described the K22 billion 2022 Budget which was passed without objections by Parliament tonight as a “milestone budget”.
The Budget was passed by Parliament with no objections after a marathon debate in which Opposition MPs had the chance to air their views, unlike the previous government of Peter O’Neill, where budgets were hurriedly passed without debate.
“This is a milestone budget because it is the first budget-proper for the nation to enter into the K20-billion budget realm,” PM Marape said.
“No past government has entered into this space.
“For the first time, in tough times, we are entering into the threshold of a K100 billion economy as focused by the Treasurer (Ian Ling-Stuckey).”
PM Marape said when he first addressed Parliament in 2019 as Prime Minister, he said PNG would become the “richest black Christian nation”, and in 10 years would become a K200 billion economy.
He added he was pleased to see in Treasurer Ling-Stuckey’s presentation that throughout the rollout of the 2022 Fiscal Year targets, “we will have a glimpse of surplus budgets starting in 2027, and a Papua New Guinea with no sovereign debt by 2034, if we choose to travel the road we are seeing today – the Pangu Rot (Road)”.
“This is a momentous and key national milestone as we are reaching a K200 billion economy in 2031, by the way we are focused,” PM Marape said.
“Our Budget is focused not on just 2022, but within the 13-year window that the Treasurer has opened for us to glimpse into the future.”
He said Ian Ling-Stuckey’s plan would bring PNG from a “very expensive, debt-riddled economy to a surplus debt-eradicated economy”.
“The reconstruction started three years ago, despite the once-in-a-hundred years pandemic, depite political instability in our country, despite the weak broken-down systems,” PM Marape said.
“Our economy, despite systematic complacency and corruption over many years, is now seeing signs of better times ahead.”
Great efforts by this Government.