Author: Joshua ARLO

The National Department of Commerce and Industry, working with the East New Britain (ENB) Provincial Commerce Division, has offered a two-week training program in Kokopo to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) find money and learn about market information. Mr. Jerry Marai, the lead trainer, said, “We were tasked by the government to provide the training to 30, 000 SMEs throughout the country for the next 10 years.” “For each year, we have to cover about 500 SMEs and we did that last year by covering seven provinces and training about 560 SMEs.” According to Mr. Marai, the training first…

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The East New Britain Provincial Election Manager has welcomed the announcement of the deferral of the 2024 Local Level Government (LLG) Elections, emphasizing that this will allow for better preparation, with an estimated provincial budget of K5 million. This follows a joint statement by the Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, Soroi Eoe, and Chief Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai. The elections, originally scheduled for July, will now take place in September due to the ongoing National Census. The revised schedule includes the issue of writs on September 26th, with nominations, campaigns, and polling extending into late November and…

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Farmers in the five wards of Inland Baining in Gazelle District, East New Britain, are set to receive cocoa trees starting on Monday, July 22nd, until Friday, July 27th. This initiative follows a successful three-day training session on cocoa management practices and production. The training, part of the GEF 7 FOLUR (Forest, Land use, and Restoration) project, is a partnership between the PNG Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The training, held recently from July 17th to 19th at the Gazelle International Hotel in the city of Kokopo, was conducted in collaboration with the Cocoa Board of PNG.…

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Major IT outages are hitting industries across the world, with airlines, banking, shops and healthcare affected. Crowdstrike says global IT issues caused by ‘defect’ in ‘content update.’ Here’s the full statement from George Kurtz, the CEO of Crowdstrike: “Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. “We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide…

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The former police commander looking after the New Guinea Island Region Assistant Commissioner of Police, Perou N’dranou is now the commander looking after Border Command. This follows a recent transfer directive, dated July 9th, 2024 for the former commander of Boarder Assistant Commissioner of Police Peter Philip to take up his new post as the Assistant Commissioner of Police Training looking after the National Centre of Excellence Bomana. In a small but significant handover ceremony at the police headquarters at Konedobu in Port Moresby today (Thursday July 18th), ACP Peter Philip handed over the command to ACP N’dranou. ACP Philip…

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Works and Highways Secretary David Wereh has praised the completed nine new climate-resilient bridges—three in East Sepik and six in Madang— as transformative impact project as it will boost the livelihoods of over 40,000 people in the rural areas along the Sepik and Ramu Highways. “It has brought transformational social and economic benefits to rural communities by providing reliable and safer access to markets.” “It has also significantly enhanced our knowledge and skills in bridge engineering.” This follows an investment of $50 million (estimated K194mil) by EIB Global to construct these nine new bridges in the country, significantly improving connectivity…

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A new transfer directive has been issued by the Commissioner for Police, David Manning for another reshuffle within the police command. In the directive perused by PNG HAUSBUNG, Commissioner Manning said it is an effort to rebuild and strengthen key commands across the country and aims to place the right people in the right roles at the right time to meet the evolving operational requirements of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC). This was evident in today’s (Thursday, July 18) handover takeover ceremony for Border Command at the RPNGC headquarters at Konedobu in Port Moresby witnessed by staff officers…

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The Opposition’s Vote of No Confidence Supreme Court Reference case is set for a pivitol directions hearing on Friday July 19th, 2024, at 9:30 am. Justice Derek Hartshorn will preside over the session. In the previous hearing on July 1st, 2024, Justice Hartshorn granted legal councels for the Speakerof Parliament, Job Pomat and Justice Minister, Pila Niningi who is the Attorney General, under two weeks to submit their responses to the grounds of the case, while the lawyers for Douglas Tomuriesa, the Leader of the Opposition, were given seven days to reply. Friday’s hearing will primarily focus on confirming the…

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The pool competition in Port Moresby is gaining momentum, spreading excitement across the city and even into the Central province. This time, it has reached Poreporena village, a large coastal community in NCD’s Moresby South, where preparations are underway for their own pool competition. Set to kick off on August 5, 2024, the Poreporena Pool Competition (PPC) aims to bring fair play, sportsmanship, and community engagement through the sport of pool. Maryanne Accorin, the Executive Coordinator, shared their enthusiasm. “We welcome teams from Hanuabada, Elevala, and Gabi, and look forward to a competitive and fun season.” Led by Chairman John…

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Port Moresby’s crime rate has surged recently, driven by the city’s growing population, according to the NCD/Central Divisional police command. Limited police manpower has made it challenging to address all incidents, prompting a more proactive approach. Officers continue setting up tents in crime hotspots and conducting foot patrols to deter criminal activity. Sector Patrol 100 Units were seen establishing their operation tents in the Moresby South Electorate this week. The NCD/Central Divisional Command expressed gratitude to officers from other zones for their efforts in maintaining safety across the city in a social media post. “We thank the other police officers…

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