MY COUNTRY MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN On behalf of my spouse Rachael and my children, it gives me great pleasure to address the Nation as we celebrate 47 years of our coming of age as an Independent Nation. This occasion provides yet again, that opportunity for us to reflect on our development achievements and challenges over the past 46 years and re-chart a meaningful course for progress in the ensuing years and beyond. Before I proceed, let’s all give thanks to the Merciful and Almighty God for His continued presence and guidance upon us over the past 46 years. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, The formation of Government by PANGU Pati that I lead, following the recent National Elections was largely due to the policies and initiatives we introduced through the Loloata Agreement upon assumption of Office in May 2019. I speak with great comfort and confidence that our people have heard PANGU Pati and its coalition partners call for transparency, good governance, sound fiscal and economic management and for socio-economic development to be inclusive and leaving no one behind. Our people overwhelmingly returned PANGU Pati to power and this is evident in that most of our candidates scored 60 per cent of the actual total votes regardless of whether they came first, second or third in the preferences. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, This overwhelming support is indeed indicative of the trust and confidence the people have in the PANGU Pati, including its Coalition Partners and signifies stability in Government. This stability and support is an added bonus that gives us confidence in practically and meaningfully implementing, and more importantly realising our sectoral plan’s and initiatives derived from the 2019 Loloata Agreement in the next five years and beyond. Furthermore, stability and continuity in Government only strengthens PANGU Pati’s resolve and mantra to make Papua New Guinea the 'Richest Black Christian Nation on Earth' and leave no one behind in the development equation. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, We are not a new Government, we are a continuing government that is NOW BETTER PREPARED AND POSITIONED to effectively coordinate and deliver on its development priorities in the next five years. This Government is NOW more targeted and focused on critical areas that will spur future economic growth and bring much needed development to all of us particularly, the unreached in rural Papua New Guinea. Whilst our focus in years gone by was mainly on the non-renewable sector, which is depletable and only serves 10 percent of the economy, we are now giving equal attention to the renewable sector that serves 80 percent of our people who can be empowered and meaningfully engaged when we appropriately harness the agri industry. We must not just harvest our resources, as has been the case in the past 46 years, we must invest in adding value to them for domestic consumption and international trade. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Therefore the Government in our wisdom has created new ministerial portfolios responsible for Oil Palm, Coffee and Livestock that will set us on a trajectory to intervene into the rural economies and engage the majority of our people to earn a household disposable income to improve their livelihoods in these sectors where they are already directly engaged. The rural masses are our biggest asset that can be easily employed in the agriculture sector once we present them with support and workable initiatives to toil their land. Agriculture, the 'Sleeping Giant', will be awakened. In fact, the Government has already embarked on initiatives such as price and freight subsidy and nursery support to sustainably harness this important sector and ensure it is growing the rural economy while contributing to Consolidated Revenue. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, These subsidy programmes will continue not just seasonally but free from political interference and manipulation. The renewable sector, including agriculture, is the major priority of my Government now and we will extend support to include other vital areas such as Fisheries, Forestry and Tourism sectors whose potential are yet to be fully realised. Government is also now paying full attention to industrialise our economy leading into our 50th Anniversary of independence and we invite existing and potential multilateral and bilateral donors to partner with us in value-adding and downstream processing of our vast natural resources for fair and equitable returns for our resource owners, state and developers. This will also generate much-needed revenue streams that will increase our foreign exchange and complement our national budget. An increase in foreign exchange in our coffers will greatly ease the backlog in orders and shortage to help sustain our economy and build our foreign reserves to respectable levels to accommodate import coverage and balance of payments. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Industrialisation is a very bold undertaking by this Government, and it requires the concerted effort of all our people, business and investors and Government and Development Partners. We must dispel the common perception by naysayers that Papua New Guinea is incapable of embarking on major industrialisation projects. Why should we continue to listen to such critics and be misled for the next 46 years? WE CAN DO IT! In addition to that, our Industrialisation programme is targeted at making Papua New Guinea self-sustaining as a net exporting country to Asia and the global markets. This will support our initiatives for Import Substitution and Food Security and meeting our domestic market obligation for oil and gas in petro-chemical products and for coffee, cocoa and fresh organic primary produce, fishery and livestock for food security. Partnership through Foreign Direct Investment is highly encouraged and will assist in developing our value-adding and downstream processing facilities locally in our special economic zones to bring in much needed revenue streams to support the National Budget. Furthermore, we cannot just keep talking about concepts, we already have the appropriate policies and plans in place and what we need now is total and unequivocal commitment and hard work to practically realise and implement these concepts to achieve industrialisation and economic growth. We must empower our people, so that they are equal participants and are contributing to economic growth - this Government will ensure this is achieved. We are about creating economic opportunities and empowering our many citizens in rural settings. Their potential needs to be fully realised through our various government policies and plans – This Government’s strategy is to empower one million rural families to cultivate the land with agriculture price and freight subsidy which will not be seasonal and politically motivated but on a continuing basis. The simple arithmetic here is that Government supports one million rural families who grow their crops and sells them to Government annually and if they return a profit of K10, 000 per annum individually then that would easily work out at K10 Billion easy money pumped into the economy- so this ‘Sleeping Giant’ must be awakened now and not tomorrow. To ensure an effective agriculture sector Government will be urgently seeking passage in Parliament of the Agricultural Adjustment and Agriculture Investment Corporation Draft Bills. This will include the proposal to restructure and transition the Oil Palm Industry Corporation (OPIC) into an Authority to effectively deal with all aspects of the Oil Palm Sector such as investing into mills, research and development and market access. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, No one will do this for our people, we must do it for our children and for future generations to come. Let us ALL build Papua New Guinea together - public servants, private sector, business, low and high-income earners, farmers, fisherman and ordinary citizens throughout this great nation must play your part. This Government notes the abundance of our vast natural resources that need to be combusted. More emphasis in the next three years will be placed on harnessing the agriculture sector through introduction of innovative farming methods in cash crop production, livestock and poultry. With the endless markets abound, domestically and internationally particularly in neighbouring Asian countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, India and Korea, the Government now has strategic plans to enter these lucrative markets including niche, to export our vast organic produce and non-renewable resources. These will be realised through carrying out substantive market analysis and reducing technical trade barriers, by placement of highly-trained and qualified Trade Commissioners in Papua New Guinea Diplomatic Posts and Missions in the Asian Region and Globally to market our renewable and non-renewable resources. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, We must realise that unlike other countries, we have large expanses of grassland and arable land at the Markham and Ramu valleys and Sepik Plains. Equally important is the fact that we have an abundance of water resources for consumption and irrigation at Brown, Purari, Ramu, Sepik and Fly rivers that must now be fully utilised to support our development agenda unlike in past years. Additionally, the Government has recently embarked on a major adjustment and restructuring exercise of our systems and processes that is now more focused, predictable and conscious of our real development needs. That will set us on a trajectory to achieve economic independence and prosperity. Now is the time to anchor these vast and abundant renewable resources to be the combustion for manufacture and draw maximum profits outputs to sustain our development agenda, especially service delivery to all our people. Let me assure you that the PANGU-led Government has a good composition of young and vibrant leaders in Parliament now, who continue to show promise and maturity in their outlook on how Papua New Guinea should rise as an economically self-sustaining nation. Their conversations with me demonstrates that they hold the national interest, first and foremost. With the contribution of these leaders, we have embarked on current key policy and legislative reforms including Budget Repair and Maintenance Programme which focus on getting the economy back on track. This is a good omen and is indicative of our collective desire to make Papua New Guinea an economic powerhouse in the Pacific region. It is also indicative that my Government is politically stable in a secure environment that has zero tolerance to corruption. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, We must now enforce accountability and transparency in our systems and processes if we are to progress as a successful nation, now and into the future. Let me state that a secure and prosperous Papua New Guinea is good for the region and neighbouring countries as it provides certainty and predictability in the way we conduct our relations with our bilateral and multilateral development partners. Our economy cannot develop and progress if our service industries are not reliably functioning. To support our economy we have embarked upon major reforms of our State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) to improve their overall performance in terms of service delivery and revenue generation to complement the National Budget. These reforms are also intended to ensure profitability, improve services in the airline industry, water, electricity and telecommunications and ensure independence of the SOEs as well as create gender balance in appointment of the Board of Directors to encourage good governance. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Review of the Mining Act 1992 has been completed and once endorsed by NEC and Parliament will ensure fair and equitable returns to our resource owners, the State and Developer. Other Amendments that have been passed include the Mineral Resource Authority Amendment Act and certain sections of the Mining Act 1992 to accommodate necessary situations. The long-awaited re-opening of the Porgera mine will happen during the tenure of this Government and Wafi–Golpu Project will commence construction phase immediately. For Ok Tedi, I am proud to say that it continues to pay dividends to the State as a result of prudent management and favorable weather conditions that allow shipment of ore. Other Mines in operation such as Ramu and Lihir will be reviewed because of increase in output and expiration of their Special Mining Leases in 2023. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, In the gas and oil sectors, P’nyang and Papua LNG projects have been successfully negotiated and are entering the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stage. Other Projects such as Elk Antelope and Pasca are being reviewed and pending the satisfaction of the State’s project parameters, they will proceed as planned. Review of Oil and Gas Act 1998 is progressing well with necessary changes on benefit sharing arrangements. Other necessary amendments have been completed to accommodate situations MY FELLOW CITIZENS, In the forestry sector, I launched the Forest Strategic Plan, 2021-2030 last year, which is basically aimed at increasing tax on round log exports and eventually banning round log exports by 2025. This plan is timely and is in line with my announcement in 2021 to ban round logs to enable resource owners to venture into downstream processing of our round logs and encourage Plantation development. The Forestry Act is also under review which will give emphasis to the establishment of the State Marketing Agency and to exercise the State’s 25 per cent Purchase Option of timber which has been idle since the Act’s inception. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, The Fisheries Sector continues to be a major contributor to Consolidated Revenue, through payment of annual dividends. The National Fisheries Strategic Plan 2021-2030 is a model that I encourage to be replicated by other similar Authorities given its connectivity to the Provinces and Districts to make them self-sustaining through proper harvesting of marine resources. This augurs well for the Government's plans to develop and grow our rural economies. For Tourism, a review is currently underway to ensure that the potential of this sector is being achieved in order to draw positive economic outcomes. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Climate change continues to adversely impact our people and across the Pacific Region, and we must look at innovative technology in climate change adaptation and mitigation. We must reclaim the land that we are losing to rising sea levels and which is causing displacement to our people. The Managalas Conservation area in the Oro Province, which is now up and running, serves as an opportunity to draw from and sustainably preserve and conserve our vast forest resources for real and practical developments for our future generations. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Trade and investment are key ingredients to our growing economy as can be seen from revenue generated from PNG exports that totaled USD 9.34 billion in 2020 while Foreign Direct Investment for 2020 was at USD 0.94B, a 3.87 per cent increase from 2019.This is an exciting time to increase trade revenue and harness business and investment opportunities. The recently-created Trade and Investment Ministerial Portfolio will be more focused and take real practical carriage and coordination of our trade and investment priorities to grow the economy, bring in innovation and state-of-the-art technology and facilities, transfer of skills and knowledge and increase Foreign Direct Investment. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, My Government is focused on supporting and growing the Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Sector. This vital sector plays a key role in growing the economy and ensuring that our citizens are productive and self-reliant. As of 31st December 2021, BSP extended total loans of K121 million to SME customers under SME Credit Enhancement Scheme Loan. The increasing loan figures are indicative of the demand in the MSME and the Government will continue to roll out this programme. The Government has also recently approved the establishment of a Credit Guarantee Corporation (CGC) to borrowers so that Banks and Financial Companies can lend money to borrowers, with limited credit scores. The CGC will provide credit guarantees to micro small and medium enterprises, where their loan applications lack adequate loan security. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, In 2019, National Parliament passed the Special Economic Zones Authority Act 2019 for the creation of Special Economic Zones to spur business, trade and investment including for mining, oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, forestry, and fisheries in these zones. The Special Economic Zones are now being piloted in Kikori, Manus and Kavieng. This will indeed spur economic growth in our Provinces and Districts. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, With regards to our Foreign Policy, this Government will be embarking on a review exercise to ensure it is strategic in its outlook and draws maximum benefits from our foreign relations through development assistance and Foreign Direct Investment that will complement and support our Development Agenda. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, The Government’s Connect PNG Programme is a major enabler to achieving the above development aspirations through development of high-quality economic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, airports, wharves, jetties and communication network to connect the rural population. All these development plans and initiatives will not be achieved without a safe and secure environment and this Government will therefore be addressing law-and-order head on. If you continue to commit crime and illegal activities, you are considered an enemy of the State and will be severely tried for your crimes under our laws. However, to rehabilitate you and make law breakers law-abiding citizens, this Government will provide second chances through prison industries and education programmes that my Government will fund. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Papua New Guinea will finally have a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) structure in place in the coming months. This SWF structure will see seven percent of dividends from all Kumul companies, including the extractive sector, being funneled through following the policy approval by the State. Government has already approved for all Kumul companies, especially Kumul Mining Holdings Ltd, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd and Kumul Consolidated Holdings Ltd that at every declaration of dividend, seven percent is set aside to be funneled into a SWF structure. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, In terms of governance, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and Whistle Blowers Act will greatly address corruption and governance issues in the country. We are absolutely committed to ensure that the commissioners for ICAC are fully appointed, and that they can commence building a reputable organisation that can start prosecuting offenders. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, Government will provide further opportunities to children, youths and adults that have not progressed in education by enrolling them in Flexible Open and Distance Education (FODE) and Community Colleges for up-skilling their qualifications and migration into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be productive citizens and help alleviate the escalating law-and-order situation nation-wide. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, The Government, as I mentioned earlier, is now better positioned to see through its plans and initiatives, including the policy and legislative amendments through reforms, restructuring and readjusting of our Cabinet and Public Service. The future is promising and requires our collective resolve and commitment to make us a modernised society that is structured and ensures its people are positively impacted by the Government’s development plans. We must have reason to celebrate, we cannot just celebrate because of another anniversary. Until such time that our people in remote Lagai village in Menyamya of Morobe, Mougolu village in Western Province and Pataku Island in Manus are able to access a fully-stocked aid post and a fully-resourced school, only then will we have a reason to celebrate. Let us celebrate our 47th year peacefully with our families and with a reinvigorated outlook and approach to improve for the better in the road to our 50 years of Nationhood in the next three years. God Bless Papua New Guinea ****