Infrastructure

THERE WILL BE K3 BILLION WORTH OF CAPITAL WORKS CONTRACTS FOR THE INITIAL PHASE OF THIS PROJECT

LENDERS AND DONORS RALLY ROUND

Funding certainty is ‘critical’ for the Connect PNG project, according to the Department of Works and Highways’ David Wereh.

However, he observes, a ‘funding gap’ of nearly K1.6 billion had accumulated between what PNG needed to spend on its roads and what it could afford to spend.

To try to address the gap, the government passed the Connect PNG (Implementation and Funding) Bill 2021. The legislation guarantees an annual minimum funding of 5.6 per cent (about K1 billion) per year to the project.

Another significant portion of funding will come from international donors and lenders, including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Australian Infrastructure Finance Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP), the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Chinese and Indian Exim Banks.

Robert Jauncey, Chief Investment Officer at AIFFP, says his facility has a keen focus on new infrastructure.

‘We will be working with PNG to undertake preparatory work for the first stage of the transnational highway … We are hoping to be able to offer PNG up to A$300 million (K775 million) for the first phase of that,’ he says.

CREDIT: OTML

New connections set to transform PNG

Papua New Guinea’s ambitious 20-year road development plan is on track to create major new infrastructure corridors.

By Paul Chai

The first phase of the 20-year Connect PNG road recovery plan aims to deliver a completed Trans-Island Highway connecting PNG’s capital city and Lae by sealed road for the first time. The Trans-Island Highway remains Connect PNG’s number one priority: a road that would run from Nine Mile Junction in Lae and end in Malalaua in Gulf Province, connecting Lae and Port Moresby via a functional highway.

According to David Wereh, Secretary of Connect PNG’s implementing agency, the Department of Works and Highways, that goal will be achieved when the 121 kilometre ‘missing link’ between Bema in Gulf Province and Bulolo in Morobe Province is completed in 2025.

‘To coincide with the 50th anniversary of independence of the country, the government would like to see that this section of the highway is fully connected to the southern region. The missing link has 68 kilometres of tough, rugged terrain and that will be our biggest challenge,’ says Wereh.

‘We will be using satellite technology that can relay the coordinates and do some concept design that can give us an idea of how much work we can do.’

Long roads ahead

Connect PNG is expected to cost around K20 billion up to 2040 to improve road connectivity between PNG’s four geographic regions so that the country can literally drive more economic participation from regions currently cut off from major trade routes.

The first phase, which runs to 2027, is costed at K7.98 billion.

Wereh says there will be K3 billion worth of capital works contracts for the initial phase. 