Negotiations into the Community Development Agreement (CDA) for the Central Cement & Lime Project, commenced on Thursday January 30th for all the parties involved in this project in the Central province. The negotiations of the project based at the Hiri-Koiari District, is expected to last for a week before initialization of the CDA by all parties. The parties are the Kido Landowners Association, Rearea Landowners Association, Hiri Rural Local Level Government (LLG), Central Provincial Government, the State and the developer Mayur Resources Limited. The first two days of meetings were graced with the presence of the Governor for Central Province, Rufina Peter, and Member for Hiri-Koiari, Keith Iduhu. Mr. Iduhu and Governor Peter told stakeholders that they were in support of the project as the project is going to impact the district, province and the country. They said they were ready to lead their people into realizing benefits out of the project. Benefits that are being negotiated include royalties, Special Support Grants (SSG), Tax Credit Scheme, Business Development Plan (spin off benefits/contracts for landowners) and infrastructure development. Meantime, the National Government expects that the CDA will be signed by the parties in the first quarter of this year and will be one of the highlights of the nation’s 50 years independence celebrations, besides Porgera and Wafi Golpu projects.