- Thank you Mr Jonathan Kidu, our First Secretary for the kind introduction.
- Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou – Katoa
- Excellencies, Colleagues, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I must thank you all for joining us at this Welcome Reception – at our High Commission.
Too many of you – distinguished Excellencies and colleagues are here, and I am not able to recognize you all individually so please do forgive me.
However, please know that all due protocols are observed.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
We have a special guest in the house – Madam Winnie Laban, former Member of Parliament, and current Assistant VC of the Victoria University of Wellington. Madam Laban, we thank you for joining us for this Welcome Reception.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
The purpose of this Welcome Reception is twofold:
- Firstly, to introduce myself to you all; and
- Secondly, to meet many of you at this occasion, as making appointments to meet with you all individually, would take a lot of time.
- I will also take the opportunity to share some interesting important information about PNG – the people, culture, and its environment.
Firstly, in brief about myself – I took up my posting assignment about 2 months ago.
And – I am now fully cleared to conduct business with you all after presenting my Letter of Introduction to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Hon Christopher Luxon on February 21st.
I am a Foreign Service Officer and previously served at the Permanent Mission of PNG to the United Nations in New York from 2002 to 2007.
My second posting was to Australia as the Deputy High Commissioner at the PNG High Commission in Canberra.
While I was serving in Canberra, the Government appointed me to this job as High Commissioner to New Zealand – with concurrent accreditation to Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, and Niue.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
At this juncture, let me thank the Government and people of New Zealand for their contributions in the development of our country in many priority sectors such as health, education, agriculture, gender empowerment, and electricity projects to address the energy needs in our country.
We also value the important role New Zealand plays in addressing climate change, sustainable development, regional peace and security, and other development challenges facing the countries of the Region.
PNG is participating in the RSE Scheme. Our numbers are comparatively low. However, we are pleased with the direction of Prime Minister Luxon and his government for PNG to increase its RSE numbers.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
As Papua New Guineans, we do not realise how important our country is to the rest of humanity. Let me expound on this and share few important attributes of our country:
Firstly, PNG is a country of about 12 million people with Highlanders who look like me, the Papuans who look like our Polynesian brothers and sisters, the New Guinea Islanders who look like the Micronesians, and the unique Bougainvilleans…. We are a truly diverse country.
Secondly, PNG is an epicenter when it comes to the evolution of human culture and languages. PNG is the most linguistically and culturally diverse country on the planet. We speak 860 different languages and that is about 20% of the world’s languages.
It is hard for anyone to comprehend how it is possible for a small country, with a small population, to speak 20% of the world’s languages.
Thirdly, PNG is one of the 17 mega biodiversity countries. For a landmass of less than 1% of the world’s total land mass, PNG is home to 5-7% of the world’s biological diversity.
This somewhat explains why PNG has one of the richest tuna fishing grounds in the world and other resource endowments that are unparallelled to many other countries of our size.
PNG has a huge biodiversity reservoir that needs to be protected from the dangers of logging and other environmental damages.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests
Fourthly, PNG is one of the largest tropical rainforest countries in the world, after the Amazon and Congo regions. Our contributions and role as a single small country is so huge. And we regard ourselves as the world’s largest lung to sustain all humanity on our planet.
Our tropical rainforests are important to all inhabitants and therefore we must protect it from the dangers of environmental damages.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
Having outline these unique attributes of profound importance to humanity, you can now appreciate why it is compelling for the international community to support PNG’s development and its efforts to preserve its rich cultural heritage; protect the rich terrestrial and marine biodiversity; preserve its tropical rainforest; combat illegal fishing, address climate change; and implement our regional commitments and priorities under the Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
Our forefathers recognised the importance of PNG’s rich and diverse culture as well as its terrestrial and marine biodiversity and called for their preservation and protection in the Preamble of our National Constitution.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
At PNG’s Independence, our population was about 3 million people, and it has grown to about 12 million today. This represents an extremely high growth of our population.
We have not progressed well in the development of our health, education, law and justice sectors, creation of employment, infrastructure developments, and the development of the economy to cater for the increasing population.
To address such development challenges, the government is embarking on certain policy programs and initiatives, such as the development of Trade and Economic Zones; and the construction of many roads in rural PNG under its PNG Connect Policy; and changes in our policy regimes for PNG to gain more from the harvest of our natural resources.
The Government is also encouraging foreign direct investment (FDIs), especially in downstream processing of our agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and other resource endowments.
These are certain important priorities that the Government will pursue with New Zealand and other countries.
As we embark on our development challenges, we appreciate the enduring friendship and commitment of many development partners such as Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, the European Union, China, the United States, and off course New Zealand.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
Throughout history, many of our countries have gone through their darkest moments.
As some of you may be aware, about 2 weeks ago, a tribal conflict claimed the lives of many people in the Highlands of PNG. It is indeed a sad moment for our country, and the government is taking all necessary measures to address the situation and prevent the repeat of such incidents in the future.
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
I must stop here and join you in the conversations which is the main purpose of our gathering.
Thank you all, once again, for joining us at this Welcome Reception.
Thank you, thank you, and God bless.