PM: Land the big barrier
Post-Courier, Copyright 2000
November 29, 2000
THE serious problem in urban planning for Papua New Guinea is land, the most basic asset people have.
And like the rising population, economic and social ambitions are high but the availability of land is not keeping pace, according to Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta.
More support, he said, should be given to these ambitions to accommodate the growing population needs and allow for enhanced development.
Sir Mekere said this yesterday during the opening of the two-day urban local-level government conference in Port Moresby.
He said domestic economic activity had to become the primary force behind national economic growth and national development, which required the encouragement of the small but growing national entrepreneurial class.
“PNG has one of the highest population growth rates in the world with towns and city population growing dramatically at 2.4 per cent a year and other parts growing at a remarkable 4 per cent each year.
“It is in our towns and cities that the pressures created by the demands of a rapidly growing population, where high social and economic expectations are most sharply felt with land supply the shortest.
“The issue for this country, in terms of economic activity and wealth generation, is the ability to mobilise land, just as it is in terms of a sustainable and enjoyable urban lifestyle.
“The fact is that millions of our poorest people are sitting on the greatest part of the wealth of the nation, and they are unable to exploit it except largely in traditional ways for the production of subsistence crops.”
Sir Mekere said based on preliminary unofficial 2000 census figures, which put the current population of Port Moresby at 240,000, it was estimated that there was sufficient land for the development of the capital city until 2015.
The NCDC’s urban development and urban services plan says the city can house and employ the official estimated population of 531,000 by 2015, and can provide a sustainable and enjoyable community.