APRIL 22, 2023
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has thanked Koiari landowners of Central and Chinese investor PNG Hydro Development Ltd for making the massive K770 million Edevu Hydropower Project along the Brown River possible.
He also announced that the Government was partnering the project by way of K120 million for a 132KV transmission line from Edevu to Port Moresby which is already under construction, on top of the K650 million spent by the company.
The Prime Minister said this at Edevu Village on Friday, April 21, 2023, when launching the Edevu Hydropower Reservoir Impoundment. This is a major step towards commencement of the project – which started in 2009 with a first visit to the area by the investor.
He was accompanied by State Enterprises Minister Hon. William Duma, Petroleum and Energy Minister Hon. Kerenga Kua, Central Governor Hon. Rufina Peter, Hiri-Koiari MP Hon. Keith Iduhu, Kairuku MP Hon. Peter Isoaimo, other Ministers and MPs.
“We are a nation in pursuit of development. In the power sector, we want 70 per cent of our country – by 2030 – to have accessibility to cheap, reliable, and green energy to our country,” PM Marape said.
He said what the Edevu landowners had done, by going into partnership with a foreign investor, was a good example for traditional landowners in the rest of the country.
“You have shown a wonderful example to other landowners right across our country. You (landowners) own 97 per cent of land rights. My Government, as governments of past, and any government into the future, will not break that right you have. It is your inherent, God-given right to your land.
“But land sitting idle is of no use to us, or more importantly, our children and their children that will come into the future.”
PM Marape also thanked PNG Hydro Development Ltd, and particularly Managing-Director, Allan Guo and the Chinese financier, for their perseverance in the project since 2009.
“Thank you, investors, for having faith and confidence in my country. When the whole world was shut down, due to COVID-19, Mr Guo and his team of over 500 Papua New Guineans were still hard at work here in the Edevu mountains,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful reflection of an investor, who saw this opportunity thousands of miles away, and had faith in Papua New Guinea.
“For investors out there, who are wanting government gurantee and security, here is an example of a junior Papua New Guinea resident investor putting in money and making it happen.
“I want this to be an example to all you investors out there – Chinese, Japanese, Australia, US, European, Indonesian – that we want foreign investment in this country.
“I call on all those who have capacity in our country, including our super funds and Mineral Resources Development Company, who have billions of Kina in assets: ‘Be adventurous, step up like Allan Guo who had no strong balance sheet’.
“There is potential to move into the clean energy space because country’s energy needs will grow, with clean energy to take precedence.”
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