The Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress says a new employment project promoted by the Melansian Spearhead Group is only a temporary solution to the shortage of skilled workers.
Members of the MSG have agreed to implement a Skills Movement Scheme to allow each countries to employ workers from the other members.
The General Secretary of the Union, John Paska says there is an acute skills shortage in PNG which is fast becoming chronic.
He says the scheme on its own does not solve this.
"The initiative is welcome but it cannot be treated as the panacea for addressing the skills shortages in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere for that matter in the region. There has to be a constructive approach and such a constructive approach must require that the relevant finance, necessary finance, policy framework is pumped back into the development of training institutions and skills development in respective countries."
John Paska says Melanesian governments need to collaborate with Australia and New Zealand to boost their human resource development.
