Aviation operator HEVILIFT will again declare strong dividends for shareholders in coming months, underpinned by the soaring success of its investment in community initiatives. HEVILIFT Director John Tuaim said the company had created a long-term talent pipeline through its pilot and engineering cadetship program, delivering significant social and financial returns. “We are proud to support the communities in Papua New Guinea through our pilot training and engineering apprenticeship programs,” Mr Tuaim said. “Our training program gives local people the opportunity to access world-class industry training and secure a career with a leading aviation company. “HEVILIFT also supports the community by declaring dividends, which go to local landowner beneficiaries for use in community investments and infrastructure development projects like schools,” he said. Since its establishment, the HEVILIFT training program has provided career pathways for local people, employing 10 cadet pilots and six apprentice engineers. HEVILIFT commits to ensuring the costs of flight and engineering training are not prohibitive to the pursuit of careers for aspiring aviators, offering financial assistance to cadets and trainees. Head of Flight Operations Dirk Markesteijn said the cadetship program would form a critical part of HEVILIFT’s rebound from the COVID-19 lockdowns that have devastated the aviation industry. “The aviation industry, especially in Papua New Guinea where the terrain is very difficult, needs skilled pilots and engineers, and the HEVILIFT program ensures our staff have the training they need to succeed,” Mr Markesteijn said. “With COVID, we know that many aspiring pilots have had to think twice about entering the aviation industry. Once the industry does recover, we want to be ready with a skilled team ready to take to the skies. “We are proud to be a business that supports local people and positively impacts the communities in which we operate,” he said. In 2020, HEVILIFT commenced further community initiatives, establishing of an environmental plan and carbon program to offset its emissions. Mr Tuaim said a tree planting project was among the environmental initiatives designed to benefit the community and contribute to a greener future. “We partner with local businesses to plant approximately 1,000 native trees per month in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, providing revenue and employment to the community,” Mr Tuaim said. “Tree planting is only the beginning of our commitment to a more sustainable future, and part one of an ongoing plan to look for opportunities to contribute to growing the community.” Picture source: MRDC

A Super League club has its eye on Mitchell Pearce and have even tabled a huge offer, however the Knights aren’t going to let the veteran halfback go that easy. French Super League club, Catalans Dragons, have identified their replacement for James Maloney and it’s Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce. According to a News Corp report, Catalans are set to table a three-year deal to the 32-year-old worth $1.8 million. Catalans signed Maloney for the 2020 and 2021 Super League seasons on a $600,000 salary. With Maloney officially retiring from professional footy, this year’s grand finalists are on the hunt for a replacement. Pearce is signed to Newcastle until the end of next season after the club gave him a one-year extension him in March. News Corp reports Pearce is yet to discuss the offer with the Knights, however the club is aware of Catalans’ interest in their star No.7 after some “robust conversations.” However Newcastle won’t release him unless they can secure an adequate replacement. The plan is to shift superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga to the halves but that move isn’t expected to happen until 2023. Pearce has played over 300 NRL games and has represented New South Wales, however given his age, it’s unlikely he’ll be offered a new deal in Australia beyond his current one. Source: Fox Sports  

Trukai Industries recently donated rice towards a relief support for a village in Gulf Province. The one tonne rice donation will go towards providing food for the Kukipi villagers whose food gardens, water supplies and cash crops have been destroyed by the effects of the king tides. This impact of global warming has caused village homes to be destroyed while some were completely flooded. Trukai’s Public Relations and Communications Manager Andrea Tagamasau reaffirmed the significance of this donation stating that this act of kindness was part of Trukai’s corporate social responsibility. “At Trukai we believe in giving back to the community which we live and operate in because the community supports us. Through our community programs we support community organisations such as the Kukipi Flood Relief Committee to help them progress the good work that they are doing to help those who have been impacted by this effect of global warming,” said Ms Tagamasau. Kukipi Flood Relief Committee member Molly Lava on behalf of their committees in Gulf Province and Port Moresby thanked Trukai Industries for the timely donation. “We are very grateful for this generous donation which will help our fellow villagers and will definitely alleviate the suffering that they are currently facing,” said Ms Lava. Trukai also gives monthly rice donations to NGOs such as Cheshire Disability Services and City Missions in Port Moresby and Lae to name a few. Recently the rice company donated a combined 600 kilograms of rice to both Youth With A Mission (YWAM) medical ship and Samaritan Aviation in East Sepik. Both organisations attend to Papua New Guineans living in remote areas by providing life-saving medical treatment and emergency evacuations. Trukai’s corporate social responsibility program supports a wide variety of community activities and programs for people living with disabilities, sports, education, and health.

We’re now into fourth term of the academic year and with it comes recognition of students’ efforts throughout the year. For our Education team here at Port Moresby Nature Park, our team took to several schools, presenting the Top Explorer and Champion Explorer Awards for schools who repeatedly visited the Park for its school excursion programs. One such school was La Salle Technical College’s Year 10 students, also undertaking Tourism & Hospitality studies who had visited the Park for practical lessons in July and August this year. On hand to receive the class certificate award was teacher Dorothy Edipau who was equally excited and surprised to receive the class award. Over 70 schools have participated so far in the schools excursion program of which the Education team are truly proud of, noting the range of students from pre-school through to tertiary institutions. Apart from La Salle Technical College, there are a number of other secondary schools and tertiary institutions such as St Charles Lwanga, Port Moresby International School, APTC and the University of Papua New Guinea who have also participated in the park’s education programs. “We are always particularly happy to see more secondary and tertiary students participate in our education programs. Eco-tourism goes hand-in-hand with our mission of delivering conservation education and these are the very people who are ready to join us in on that mission”, said Ms Shirley Mogi, Port Moresby Nature Park’s Education Manager. The Port Moresby Nature Park wishes to thank all the schools, Foundations, NGO Groups, Church Groups, Youths, etc from around Port Moresby and Central province that have so far participated in its education programs this year. Special thanks goes to the Park’s valued sponsors Sir Brian Bell Foundation and British High Commission as well as its supporter, NCDC Transport Division, whose sponsorship and support has allowed more students to be educated at the Park. Port Moresby Nature Park through its Education Program educates students and the local community on the importance of the natural environment in order to enhance the cultural integrity of local people, giving them more reasons to protect and conserve their natural environment.

Legal services provided to more than 15,000 people living in Daru have been improved following village court information sessions and inspections held in the area recently. A team of officials from Western Province accompanied by an officer from PNG’s Village Court and Land Mediation Secretariat met with village court officials and community members from the Tamate, Iaru, Cawo’o, Darowaro, and Central Kiwai Village Courts. The meetings were an opportunity to share information and ideas about court and mediation services and how they can best support the community. The officials inspected village court records, reviewed the conduct of court officials, observed court procedures and held information sessions for more than 300 community members. The activities were supported by the Australian Government through the PNG-Australia Partnership to strengthen village court and land mediation services in Western Province, recognising the central role village courts play in bringing justice to remote communities. Australian High Commission representative Elizabeth Beard, who supported the inspection team visiting the Daru area, said effective village courts and land mediation services were important to improving community safety and security. “For many people, village courts are where they can access justice and resolve disputes over land, debt or petty crime before they escalate into something more serious,” said the representative. “That is why the PNG-Australia Partnership is committed to working with PNG to strengthen village courts by training officials, providing resources and conducting inspections.” Since 2016, the Partnership has provided training for more than 2360 village court magistrates and clerks across Papua New Guinea, improving the quality and accessibility of legal services provided to more than 1.4 million people.

Dirio Gas & Power Ltd and PNG Power Ltd announced this week that the 100% nationally owned Independent Power Producer will begin supplying power into Port Moresby grid at the end of this month. Directors of Dirio and PNG Power signed an agreement on Wednesday, which paves the way for Dirio to supply power into the Port Moresby PNG Power grid. Dirio built and commissioned a 45 mega-watt (MW) power plant at Caution Bay in Central province in November 2020 but was unable to supply electricity due to PNG Power not building a transmission line nor having sufficient capacity and stability on the existing transmission line to take the full supply as per the Power Purchase Agreement. Dirio and PNG Power worked together to resolve the Port Moresby grid transmission network stability issue, and on 20 October 2021 signed another significant agreement which allows the supply of power to begin on October 30, 2021. “This is the first phase of the full implementation of the agreement,” Chairman of Dirio Ambassador Isaac Lupari said at the signing. “There has been some delay due to technical issues, but those have now been resolved, and I thank our Directors and everyone for being patient.” “This business is owned by landowners. I am proud that our people are getting into the downstream processing business.” “Our aim is to provide stable, affordable power to consumers in the capital city, and generate sustainable income from the business,” Ambassador Lupari said. Hela Governor Hon. Philip Undialu, representing the landowners and provincial governments who own Dirio Power, said it was a bold decision to get into the power business. “For too long, we have left it to foreigners to dominate the electricity sector in PNG. That must change. Papua New Guineans must get into this sector and I am glad we have taken the bold stand with this initiative,” Mr. Undialu said. He thanked the board and management of Mineral Resources Development Company and Dirio for working hard to deliver the project. Dirio is owned by PNG LNG Project landowners and the Hela, Southern Highlands, Gulf, and Central Provincial Governments.

VACCINATION AT SOUTH PACIFIC BREWERY IS NOT MANDATORY, CONTRARY TO RECENT FAKE NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND CLOSED USER GROUPS. As a responsible company that takes Health & Safety of its staff seriously, SP Brewery acted swiftly in February 2020 to implement measures to minimise the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 at the workplace. Listed are some actions the Company took: • Establishment of a Crisis Management Team to manage issues relating to COVID-19 • Business Continuity Plan to maintain the Company’s operations and ensure employees are productive and work safely through the pandemic • Provision of masks to all staff in all four SPB locations • Daily temperature checks in all four SPB locations • Hand-washing stations installed at all SPB premises • Provision of hand sanitizers in all workspaces • Isolation rooms – Pom and Lae. This enables our Site Nurses to attend to unwell staff in a secure space. • Split workplace and teams to minimise the impact of COVID on staff • Staff transport arrangement to ensure staff go to work and return home safely • Enablement of Working from Home by providing laptops and internet data • Provision of pocket hand sanitizers to all staff • Customer support (in Trade) by way of masks, sanitizers and awareness material • K10,000 donation to St John Ambulance to support their work during the pandemic • Weekly COVID-19 updates to keep staff abreast of information from WHO, the Health Department and PNG Government. • Thermometers provided for positive cases who are isolated at home, plus paid leave during recovery phase • SPB paid for COVID-19 testing for possible cases • Deep cleaning of work sections • COVID vaccination awareness sessions at the workplace by Tok Stret Counselling and Dr Elizabeth Inaido (as part of her community service) • Staff transport to vaccination centers during working hours since May 2021 Staff continue to adhere to COVID-19 protocols implemented at the workplace to mitigate risk of infection and/or spread of COVID. Our efforts to ensure we have a healthy workforce must continue because the pandemic is not over. Corporate Affairs Manager, John Nilkare, said: “Our policy is that employees are free to make their own decision about being vaccinated or not, but that we do recommend that they do so. “Our first value at the workplace is ‘Safety First’, thus, we place great emphasis in ensuring a health and safe workforce

Port Moresby General Hospital is reaching a crisis point, with services teetering on collapse unless the hospital is immediately given more support. The hospital urgently needs additional resources to combat the current surge, and also needs the public to follow the Nuipla Pasin to help break the transmission of the virus. The situation at Port Moresby General Hospital is as follows, the AUSTMAT triage tent is full, Emergency Department is full, the isolation ward is full, the COVID ward is full and all other beds in different sections including the maternity wing allocated to COVID are also full with Covid-19 patients. 52 medical and 42 nursing staff of the Hospital have been infected by the virus and must be given days off for home isolation, further reducing manpower. "We are faced with a crisis where COVID patients are presenting in large numbers with shortness of breath requiring manpower to assist," revealed CEO Dr. Paki Molumi. The few staff left are overworked and fatigued and the hospital needs to recruit more staff urgently. Our staff are facing unprecedented mental health challenges, as we witness death tolls never seen in the history of our hospital. PMGH Medical staff are being requested by other PHAs, and this is placing a lot of pressure on existing capacity at the hospital. PMGH is supporting Provinces with specialised staff as part of the emergency medical team travelling around the country. "This week an anaesthetist, a Obstetrics and Gynaecologist with a midwife will be travelling to Goroka Hospital, which is also in desperate need." Rapid diagnostic tests for COVID on visitors and other patients at the hospital, after confirmation with gene Xpert testing, are showing a 15 per cent positivity rate. "Many of these are random visitors, some completely asymptomatic, but able to spread the virus to the vulnerable, including patients in the hospital being treated for other illnesses. What this tells us is, people are moving around without knowing they have the virus and spreading it resulting in widespread community transmission." "People are dying without reaching the hospital. Our mortuary recorded 50 deaths on admission on Monday, 40 deaths on admission on Tuesday and 30 deaths on admission on Wednesday, with more expected in the coming days. We have never recorded such a high number of deaths on admission." The Morgue is filled, with bodies packed on top of one another. 300 plus bodies are at the morgue right now. Three more refrigerated containers have been installed to store dead bodies, but this is not enough. Some bodies were left outside for days because we just don’t have space in the morgue. A mass burial of 200 bodies is being planned this week to create more space. The bodies are both COVID positive and unclaimed non-COVID. "Our hospital cannot continue to operate under this pressure. The virus doesn’t move, people do. We need an immediate intervention to preserve the fragile health system here in the NCD. Our hospital is a central part of that health system and we are under resourced and understaffed in the middle of an aggressive third wave. As all our limited resources are focused on COVID patients, we are struggling to attend to the everyday healthcare needs of our community." "We urge the people of NCD to play their part. Stay home, wear masks properly covering your nose and mouth when in public, and isolate if you have a sore throat and flu like symptoms." "If you are eligible to be vaccinated, please vaccinate. Unlike our previous two waves, we are witnessing too many senseless deaths of young Papua New Guineans in their prime, with many more unvaccinated being admitted with severe illness." "Without a stronger enforcement of the Nuipla Pasin measures and a large proportion of the population been vaccinated, this institution faces imminent collapse." "We encourage the public to follow the NIUPLA PASIN and most importantly receive the COVID vaccine to avoid hospitalisation." "Help us to help you."

“Financial inclusion has always been a priority of BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP), as it not only promotes economic growth but it also ensures that growth is widely spread,” said BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming. Proof of BSP’s commitment to its customers is seen in the recent opening of Koroba Branch in Hela Province, a larger sub-branch at Namatanai, New Ireland Province in July and the September reopening of the Kerema sub-branch in the Gulf. In the BSP Pacific Economic and Market Insight Q3 2021 Report, Mr Fleming said BSP chooses to tackle the challenges facing financial inclusion head on because a significant portion of PNG’s population live in remote areas that are being left out. “The bank is actively working to open new banking centres in Eriku, Lae and Mt Hagen to improve service levels for BSP’s growing customer numbers. We are the people’s bank; we will continue to deliver essential banking services in those areas that other banks do not go, like Aitape, Moro, Porgera, Kainantu, Arawa, and Koroba, reaching the unbanked and giving back to communities. And we welcome everyone to join us in getting to work to advance financial inclusion,” Mr Fleming added. The report stated PNG’s 2021 forecast growth has been revised, following improvements in the large mineral and petroleum industries, especially at a time when the State, Kumul and Barrick are progressing with the Porgera commencement agreement, which is currently in its final stages. “The recent outcomes in commercial discussions with extractive project developers is a boost to business confidence. As when these projects come online, economic growth will inevitably receive the much needed boost following the recent downturn in economic activity,” Mr Fleming added. The PNG Kina has however remained unchanged against the US Dollar for a third consecutive quarter, while foreign reserves at the end of June 2021 shows a 7% quarter increase off the back of favourable inflows.

My name is William Pomat and I want you to know that vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines, prevent infections and save lives. I am now the Director of the PNGIMR, but my career began as a laboratory researcher (scientist), conducting research into how vaccines initiate an immune response and thereby protect children against pneumonia. My team and I have conducted a number of clinical trials on vaccines culminating in the introduction of pneumococcal vaccine into the immunization schedule in 2015, a journey that started in the 1970s by Ian Riley and Bob Douglas. These two gentlemen saw pneumonia as the main killer in those days and initiated research into prevention measures to save lives. In the last two years, we are continuing this work to understand whether probiotics will enhance the effects of childhood vaccines and protect them against vaccines that have lower efficacies. Immunization is an effective public health tool to prevent infections. As children, many of us received vaccines as part of the immunization program to stop us from getting infections such as pneumonia, small pox, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, hepatitis and polio. Today as adults we continue to live because of these life-saving shots early in our lives. Our children have themselves received these life-saving vaccines and continue to thrive. Scientists like me in PNG and others around the world have gained knowledge as we worked on these vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccines were developed quickly because the scientists built on decades of careful scientific work in making and testing vaccines that are effective and safe. COVID-19 vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Astra Zeneca vaccine, are now available to prevent COVID-19 infections from getting worse. Knowing about how vaccines are developed and tested and their life saving quality, I made up my mind to be vaccinated against COVID-19, at the earliest opportunity. This opportunity arose when I was among a few Eastern Highland PHA staff and colleagues from IMR to receive our first dose of AstraZeneca during the launch of the vaccine in Eastern Highlands on 5th May 2021. This story is featured in IMR news (see picture). Before receiving my first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, I was infected with COVID-19 during the easter weekend of 2021, and was evacuated to Port Moresby. I was lucky and only had the moderate symptoms of high temperatures, headache, high sugar levels, lethargy and some breathlessness, but I was still fearful. I was isolated at home in Port Moresby, which helps a lot and am very grateful to my wife and staff at IMR for taking care of me. Getting the vaccine give us some reassurance that we are safe from the virus. This is because vaccines reduces transmission of the virus plus initiates protective immune response on recognizing the virus. Those who are vaccinated are protected from serious illness and death. And if we do get the virus again, as we most likely will because COVID-19 infections are so widespread right now, we will not be as sick as if we did not receive the vaccine. So please get yourself vaccinated with one of the available COVID-19 vaccines and protect yourself, your family, your community and most importantly our health workers who will attend to you if you get sick. Getting vaccinated will also help us to return to our normal lives without fear of contracting a dangerous disease. It will also ease the strain on our ailing health system.

Papua New Guinea reported 288 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours raising its cumulative total confirmed cases to 25,356. These new cases were reported from 10 provinces of which Western Highlands reported the highest of 122; followed by NCD (73); Morobe (45); Central (15); West New Britain (14); Eastern Highlands (11); Western (2); Madang (2); Hela (2); and Jiwaka (2). There were also three new deaths reported in the past 24 hours raising the cumulative known deaths to 312. Of the deaths, two came from WHP and one was reported in Morobe. The new cases and deaths are reported by the National Control Centre only after it has received the Case Investigation Forms and Death Certificates which often come late from the Provincial Health Authorities. In this case, the three deaths had occurred 7 – 14 days ago. Although these cases were reported internally, the information could not be released until the CIFs and death certificates had been received as proof. Any deaths that have occurred outside of health facilities and have been reported by word of mouth are not being included in the national database. While there are surges occurring in many parts of the country, most provinces are far from reaching the testing and vaccination targets set for this year with an exception of NCD which has now vaccinated 63,103 people which is 48 per cent of its target population of 92,312 for this year. The rest of the provinces have covered between one per cent to 12 per cent ‘fully vaccinated’. The fully vaccination coverage rates in the highlands region are as follows: Southern Highlands (1%); Eastern Highlands (2%); Chimbu (2%); Western Highlands (4%); Hela (3%); Enga (5%); and Jiwaka (6%). The coverage rates for Momase region are as follows: Morobe (5%); West Sepik (3%); Madang (4%); and East Sepik (6%). In the Southern region, the coverage rates are as follows: NCD (48%); Western (12%); Gulf (3%); Milne Bay (3%); Central (3%); and Northern (2%). The coverage rate for New Guinea Islands are as follows: East New Britain (30%); West New Britain (15%); New Ireland (9%); Manus (16%); and Autonomous Region of Bougainville (5%). The cumulative total of people that have been fully vaccinated as of Sunday, 17th October, 2021, is 109,549. The number of people that have received only one dose stands at 109,549. The figures for vaccination coverage (at least one dose received) is 10%, and those who are fully vaccinated is 5% as of October 17, 2021. Meanwhile, Deputy Controller of the National Pandemic Response Dr Daoni Esorom has urged all frontliners, including the health workers to consider vaccination to protect themselves and their families against COVID-19. Dr Daoni said the statistics are clear, “Health workers are getting infected every day. In today’s update, we have 13 of them getting infected. This is very high. “Our country is fortunate that our government has seen the need and stepped in by ensuring that we had vaccines to protect our health workers long before the delta variant arrived. We still want them to be the priority, although the vaccines are now being given to other members of the public.”

The Manam volcano in Madang Province spewed ash and steam at 2000 metres covering the whole island. A thick dark smoke is visible as far as Bogia station on the mainland. Locals on ground say the eruption lasted 1 hour and has subsided. Local authorities on ground are monitoring the situation and more updates will be provided as more information becomes available. Image by: John Seach