Prime Minister and Tari-Port District Development Authority (DDA) Chairman James Marape presided over his district’s first DDA meeting for 2023 on Thursday (February 2, 2023).
The meeting was held at Pangale Haus in Tari which is the Tari-Pori DDA office. At the meeting, PM Marape announced that each district in PNG had been allocated K10 million in District Services Improvement Programme (DSIP) with an additional K5 million for priority infrastructure. He urged his DDA Members to work on Tari-Pori District priorities.
“We have a K15 million envelope so the DDA must approve clear priorities to be driven by Local Level Government (LLG) and District leadership in support to our Provincial Government and National Government focus areas,” PM Marape said.
“I have tasked the district administration to finalise the 2022 financial report and also update on all work which happened last year.
“I have also asked all LLGs to put all their development aspirations for 2023 together. “The focus areas for Tari-Pori District in 2023 are Education, Health, Law-and-Order, SMEs and infrastructure development. This is consistent with the focus of the National Government.
“Churches, women and youth will play key roles because they will be engaged as development partners.”
Hela Governor Philip Undialu was also in attendance to give Provincial Government support to Tari-Pori DDA.
“I commend Tari-Pori DDA for always being transparent in your development focus,” Governor Undialu said.
“The Hela Provincial Government stands ready to support you in all your development aspirations.”
Also at the meeting, Tari Town Mayor, Andaija ‘AJ’ Jeli, was reappointed as Deputy Chairman of Tari-Pori DDA to Chairman Marape