1 Jul 2011

Bougainville secures release of promised PNG funds

6:57 pm on 1 July 2011

The president of the autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville, John Momis, has won a commitment from the national government that funds due under the peace agreement will be transferred promptly.

Mr Momis has been in Port Moresby for talks with the acting prime minister, Sam Abal, and the new finance minister, Patrick Pruaitch.

He says Bougainville is badly in need of the 15 million kina, or 6.5 million US dollars, that is guaranteed to the province on an annual basis, but the allocation for the current year is still to come through.

Mr Momis says he's very happy with the outcome of the meetings and says he expects the money to be released over the weekend.

"We need every toia that we can get in order to deal with the landowners, you know, the landowner groups around Panguna to prepare them for us to look at the review of the Bougainville copper agreement, to talk to the national government, to talk with BCL, to deal with the lack of development around Panguna."

Bougainville president, John Momis.