Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Member for Kikori Begins District Awareness Visit

29th January, 2020

The Member for Kikori Hon. Soroi Marepo Eoe began his district awareness program this week covering mostly Baimuru & Ihu subdistricts.
The Member for Kikori-Hon.Soroi Eoe paid visits to Arava in Baimuru as well as his home village Harevavo and Kaivakovu & Mareke villages in the Ihu sub-district to conduct awareness on development progress to-date.
During these visits he outlined development progress on the following;
● 5 Year District Development Plan 2018-2020 - The launch of the 5-year District Development Plan 2018-2022 has enabled the Member’s office and the district administration to source funding from potential developers, foreign missions, government entities and so forth.
● Government funded commitments such as:
o Roads - Ihu-Petoe and Ihu-Muro roads worth K2m.
o Jetties & Bridges
● Electricity (Gensets) - with the transportation of the gensets to the Kikori & Baimuru within February 2020. There had been a delay as the ship hired to freight these gensets was due to return from a previous engagement. There would be a tender process to select the best contractor to carry out the installation and of these facilities for Ihu, Baimuru & Kikori.
● Public Servants Housing – 10 prefabricated houses have been purchased by the Kikori District Development Authority so improve housing for the public servants as an initial purchase. The prefab houses would be freighted with the gensets once the ship is available.
● School Fee Support – Nearly K400,000.00 had been committed to Tertiary students School Fees, this includes K42, 000 for Kapuna Community Health Workers and Pastoral students at Metago and David Kini Colleges. In 2019 alone, Minister Eoe had committed nearly K500,000 for both Tertiary students, Kapuna CHW, Pastoral students and 3 Pilot (Aviation) students. School fees had also been included for school dropouts in Grade 6, 8, 10 and 12 to enable these students a second chance in life.
● K200,000 was allocated. Scoping for Ihu & Baimuru airstrips. The IHU and BAIMURU airstrips with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kikori District Development Authority and Rural Airstrip Agency PNG Ltd the rural airstrips in the remote Kikori District paves the way for basic services to reach the communities in the area.
This agreement established a working relationship between Kikori District Development Authority and Rural Airstrip Agency built upon respect, cooperation, consultation and collaboration; wherein Kikori District Development Authority through funding assistance set out in the agreement, support Rural Airstrip Authority to restore and or rehabilitate the deteriorating Ihu and Baimuru rural airstrips in Kikori District.
This event further signified the efforts of the Member for Kikori Open, Hon. Soroi Marepo Eoe to ensure much needed infrastructure and transport services are brought to the district as outlined in the Kikori District 5 Year Development Plan 2018-2022.
Pertaining to this, the KDDA through also supported 3 trainee pilots to undergo training at the PNG Training Centre in Mareeba, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is hoped that these trainee pilots in turn would work back in the district after completion of training and are certified pilots.
● Orokolo Health Centre – Hon. Soroi Marepo Eoe had secured funding commitment from foreign investors to rebuild the Orokolo Health Centre.
● Ihu Special Economic Zone-Hon. Eoe as well as the Project Team Lead for the Ihu Special Economic Zone Project explained what the project was about. Both stressed that in order for the district to be experience major development, landowners had to give land freely, so work could progress rapidly. Hon. Eoe said the ISEZ would create enormous employment opportunities as well as economic activities and infrastructure development enabling service delivery in the Ihu area.
Hon. Eoe explained that for the short term 5-year development plan, and because the district infrastructure had badly deteriorated over the last 20 years, it was a difficult choice to make on which infrastructure to concentrate on and or to start off with. So, the last years had really been about planning.
Hon. Soroi Eoe encouraged everyone to be ready and brace themselves for major development progress in the next couple of years. He said "if we’re not prepared, we would not benefit from major development coming our way".
End………

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