World Report

National Transport Development Plan will improve market access for productive sectors and give the population greater freedom of movement

Progress is ahead of schedule on a programme to build 200 bridges in remote rural areas

prerequisite for increasing Papua New Guinea’s levels of exports, employment and wealth is the maintenance and rehabilitation of the country’s transport infrastructure. “Infrastructure is an indispensable aspect of development and it is one step we must take before any other development programmes,” states Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Don Pombpolye.

Eighty-five percent of PNG’s five million people depend on land transport. The existing road network totals some 13,000 miles, and much of it is in a poor state of repair. Some of the national routes are in good condition, thanks to funding support from the World Bank, AusAid, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union.
PNG’s geography and mountainous terrain present difficult logistical problems for infrastructure development that require high construction expenditure and technological capacity to overcome.

More than 90 percent of total transport sector costs are being focused on roads under the National Transport Development Plan (2001-2010). The objective of the plan is to provide community-wide transport services that are safe, reliable and cost efficient.

This involves maintaining, rehabilitating and improving the existing infrastructure, developing new infrastructure, and promoting private sector expansion of transport facilities and transport safety. New roads need to be constructed in the rural areas and repairs made to ones that are in poor condition to ensure that agricultural produce can be efficiently brought to market. Main roads need to be built into the most isolated areas of the country; the Highlands region, for example, has yet to be linked with the two major cities of Port Moresby and Lae, as does the remote Southern Province, where oil and gas activity is centred.

If all goes to plan, by 2010, links between agricultural, mining and industrial production districts and markets will have been improved and the population will have greater freedom of movement, including better access to services such as health and education.

Given the limited resources available, the government is focusing first of all on improving the roads the country already has. “Our primary objective is maintenance and rehabilitation of the existing facilities,” says the Transport and Civil Aviation Minister. “With the exception of the Malalaua-Kerema road, there will not be any new major road construction in the medium term.”

Millions of tonnes of cargo are shipped annually from PNG’s harbours

The Malalaua-Kerema project, which will include the upgrading of 43 miles of road and nine bridges, is expected to be completed by 2005 at a cost of £14 million. Direct construction costs of the project will be funded through the Export-Import Bank of Malaysia, with the state providing counterpart funding.

An important recent initiative by the government is the creation of a National Roads Authority to manage the maintenance of the country’s major roads, secure adequate finance and establish and operate a road fund. The authority’s board will consist of a majority of private sector members with representatives from the public sector.
Its priority will be the continuing rehabilitation of the Highlands Highway. Assistance for this project is being provided by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Australian overseas aid organisation, AusAid. Maintenance work has commenced on the highway from Lae up to the border of Eastern Highlands and Simbu. Work on the remainder has been awaiting promised funds from development partners, although the government is ready with its share of the funds.

Despite its concern about the effect on the national budget, the government has pledged to continue the national Yumi Yet bridge building programme in partnership with the British firm Mabey and Johnson under a £31 million loan agreement signed by its predecessor.

Funded by the British Export Credit Guaranteeing Department (ECGD), to be repaid over 13 years, the programme has had a hugely beneficial effect on the lives of communities in the remote rural areas where the bridges have been constructed.

So far around 70 of an intended total of 200 bridges have been built through the scheme. The programme involves using easy to build long-lasting Compact 200 bridge modules supplied by Mabey and Johnson, with construction carried out by local contractors and labour.

Progress is well ahead of schedule and the project is expected to be completed within less than three years.
Increased tax credit arrangements are being introduced by the government to encourage agricultural companies to sustain local infrastructure, especially access roads to oil palm plantations.

Work has also started, with the support of the ADB, on upgrading the country’s wharves, jetties and ports, which are in poor condition, and a community water transport programme has been launched. In addition, AusAid have been putting out tenders to upgrade and extend some of the airports.

PNG currently has no rail network, but the Transport Ministry is looking into the possibility of establishing one in the long term. “I want to see railways established in the country in the next 20-30 years,” says Mr Pombpolye.
Last year, the government halted moves to sell both the national airline, Air Niugini, and the state-owned port regulator, PNG Harbours Board, because it was confident that both could make money for the country.
All seagoing trade is facilitated by PNG Harbours Board, which oversees the country’s 17 operational ports, grouped in the administrative regions of Port Moresby, Madang, Rabaul and Lae.
The harbours of Papua New Guinea are host to millions of tonnes of cargo shipped annually, with direct seagoing links to worldwide destinations.

Some 4.5 million tonnes of cargo can be transported quickly and efficiently, around half of it through Lae, one million tonnes through Port Moresby and the rest through smaller ports such as Kimbe, Rabaul, Madang and Alotau. Cargo such as petroleum products and logs is also transported.