2 Sep 2008

PNG Government holding summit with the aim of improving service delivery

2:16 pm on 2 September 2008

The Papua New Guinea Government is this week holding a summit to determine a national strategy and improve service delivery.

The gathering is called the National Development Summit and aims to bring together leaders from the provincial to the national level to discuss development issues.

Our correspondent Oseah Philemon says the test will be whether any new approaches are implemented.

He says previous strategies by various Sir Michael Somare led governments have produced glaring failures..

"Medicine is not reaching the health centres and the aid posts in the remote parts of Papua New Guinea. People are not able to bring their coffee and cocoa and copra to the urban markets. Education services are not reaching the people, roads have deteriorated so badly that movement in and out of the remote parts of Papua New Guinea is impossible now. And yet they keep talking about a new approach. They are talking of a new vision yet they have not achieved anything in their current plan."