Transcript
AMKAT MAI: The PNG government and the bureaucrats in Waigani think that Vanimo is a small town. They don't understand what has gone on in the last five years or so into becoming a very big town, and that's why there is always a shortage of power and a lot of the houses built have not been built by power. So what I have done is, I have organised with the Indonesian side to bring the power across. But there's politics. So PNG Power is not connecting the power, so I ordered a big generator from Jakarta at a cost of 1.2 million kina (US$378,000), and also I put 3 million kina ($US946,000) of my DSIP (District Service Investment Programme) funds to bring the transmission line from Vanimo to Batas - that's the mark of the Wutung border - so that we can collect the power from Indonesia. Because the capacity that we've got now is about 1.52 megawatts - we need another three megawatts of power.
JOHNNY BLADES: That's for Vanimo town or for your whole province?
AM: No that's for Vanimo town and palm oil, you know there's a big plantation in Bewani, and there's a big cocoa plantation in Bewani as well and they need power urgently.
JB: So what you're doing is to try and get power for the big Bewani project, development and also for the provincial capital?
AM: Yes. As well as for the Wutung trade centre, you know, where, you've seen the buildings you know, we want to do trade with Indonesia so we need power there as well. For the public servants and the workers over at the Batas and the Wutung border.
JB: Currently, as it stands, the Indonesians have connected their electricity to Batas, but no further?
AM: That's it. They've connected theirs from Indonesia to Batas, but the PNG Power is too slow.
JB: Why is that? Is that because PNG Power is short of money or...
AM: I don't think PNG Power is short of money, I think they don't have the bigger vision. We need to bring power to the oil palm, to Batas, so that PNG Power can actually make money from those plantations, from the houses, etc. But they are too slow and so the connections they are doubting because of the border security reasons.
JB: A couple of months ago in local media you mentioned there were power poles already in Vanimo, but they haven't been put up.
AM: That's correct, that's correct. They put in power poles and, you know, those power cables. They put in Vanimo and, you know, they never put it up and I think there was some politics in it. People don't want me to succeed.
JB: You've obviously spoken to the state enterprises ministry about this?
AM: Yes I spoke to him in parliament and he said that the agreement with Indonesia would continue. That was about two months ago and since then I've not seen anything on the ground so that's why I'm pushing myself to buy the generator and I'm putting the DSIP funds to put the power poles from Vanimo to the border.