SEPTEMBER 16 2022
To my fellow Papua New Guineans, today marks our 47 years of nationhood and I want to thank you all for your faith and hope that we will get there.
When I become your Prime Minister in 2019, I promised you that we will be the “richest black Christian nation”. Many thought that was a highly-unattainable dream and many also felt uncomfortable with that goal I set for our nation. For clarity, ‘black’ connotes our past, ‘rich’ is our destination and ‘Christianity’ is our national character.
I ask this honest question: “What’s wrong with a nation’s leader setting a high dream and goal for his nation.” It is the work of leaders to set national goals, dreams and aspirations and work towards that destination.
Our fathers at 1975 dreamed that our country must be a place of equal and prosperous opportunity for all citizens. Sir Michael Somare, again in 2010, gave the Vision 2050 statement that we must be “healthy, wealthy and wise by 2050”.
I arrived and I set the highest goal of our nation being rich. There are about 50 developing Christian nations on earth who are our peers and we can come out top in all our human development indicators with better education, better health, better infrastructure and better law-and-order but this will not happen if our economy is not improved or bettered.
That is why, over the last three years, I have focused in a big way in relooking at getting fair returns from all recourses of our country to ensure we are economically independent.
You are hearing about us getting 51 per cent from Porgera and you are hearing about us pushing for over 55 per cent gain in total benefits from our other resource projects. You also heard about my push for us moving to ramp up production in our agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors and for us to move into manufacturing and downstream processing of our natural resources.
You have seen us putting money in banks for MSMEs and housing loan support. We will further make these ‘people help’ products get better and are easily accessible by our people. We want to link people plus produces on their land/sea to markets so people can earn money.
When our people have money, the country will have more money and then education, health, law-and-order and infrastructure will get better. That is the formula so let’s contribute to our country in making money.
On this occasion of the 47th anniversary of our political independence, I ask our citizens to join me and look for a business you can do.
If you don’t know where to start, then I point you back to agriculture and fisheries and forestry where our ancestors have been living with. Your government under Pangu Pati and its coalition partners wants to take back what is yours and give it back to you.
Find a business to do in your country. Government will unbundle land, credit facilities and buy your products so your part is to get your hands dirty. Together we can do it! Don’t sit back on an armchair and criticise, get up and get your hands dirty, let us work for PNG!
Government, under my watch, has not been just talking. We have put money in those programmes and we ask all thinking Papua New Guineans who want to contribute to better our country for our children: “Pick up a business spot this September 16 and let us work!”
Have Hope, we will be better!
******
