PNG Haus Bung

The City Pharmacy Limited Group has come on board as a sponsor in kind to the value of K30, 000 to provide much needed support to the Team PNG Athletes who are currently vying to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in July this year. In announcing this partnership, CEO of CPL Group, Mr Navin Raju, touched on the importance of sports as a tool for development and providing the support for PNG Athletes to excel on the international stage. “CPL is proud to support the endeavors of Papua New Guineans and especially our elite PNG Athletes who have been training and working extremely hard in these challenging circumstances. "It brings great satisfaction to us to support our fellow Papua New Guineans in a big global event such as the Olympic Games and we are a proud PNG company that supports Papua New Guineans”, said Mr Raju. Twenty-Nine Athletes across ten sports are currently being supported by the PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) to pursue their Olympic dream. Of the twenty-Nine Athletes, two Athletes from the sport of Sailing have already realized their Olympic dream after gaining two sports for Team PNG in the Men’s Laser and Women’s Laser Radical events. The other Athletes are still in their qualifying stages and will be looking to achieve their Olympic dreams when the qualification competition resumes in 2021. As part of their preparations, staying healthy and injury free is crucial in maintaining their fitness and nutrition which is a key aspect to achieving this. All the Athletes come from different circumstances, with some able to provide for themselves with a job or have good family support. While others, however are not that fortunate and at times are not able to maintain a nutritious diet that can contribute to staying healthy and fit to compete at a high profile competition for Team PNG. “We are proud to know that through our sponsorship, we are making an impact not just only individually but developing successful Athletes and sports in PNG and our support is in line with our value; we care for community, customers and people by giving back to the community we serve, and we demonstrate our community support to this value”, added Mr Raju. In acknowledging CPL Group’s support, Secretary General of the PNG Olympic Committee, Mrs Auvita Rapilla expressed her gratitude to CPL Group for the wonderful support towards Team PNG as they stay focused and continue to prepare to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. “CPL has a long and proud history of investing and contributing towards the development of sports in PNG and PNGOC is proud to partner with them in this journey and what a fantastic way to achieve this by collaborating with a proud PNG company that values the community and at the same time is able to provide valuable support for our aspiring Athletes”, said Mrs Rapilla. She said nutrition plays a big role in our Athletes preparations in ensuring they remain fit and healthy throughout this period. The sponsorship will see the Athletes provided with support to purchase food and toiletries which will go towards supporting their welfare and wellbeing as well as assist with their everyday living expenses.

The Minister for Public Service Joe Sungi clarified that the National Executive Council had revoked the appointment of Mr Robert Barra Kennedy as Chief Migration Officer and approved the appointment of Mr Stanis Hulahau to the position as the new Chief Migration Officer on and from 28th January 2021. Minister Joe Sungi was responding to comments made by the former Acting Chief Migration Officer, Mr. Robert Barra Kennedy the media claiming that he will only vacate the Office of the Chief Migration Officer once clarification is made on the substantive appointment. Mr. Sungi said that the National Executive Council in its Decision No. 05/2021 on 20th January 2021 approved to advise the Head of State to revoke the appointment of Mr. Kennedy as Acting Chief Migration Officer and approved to advise the Head of State to appoint Mr. Stanis Hulahau as the new Chief Migration Officer effective on and from 28th January 2021 as published in the National Gazette No. G47 of 28th January 2021. Mr. Sungi said before the permanent appointment was made, Mr. Kennedy was in the office on acting basis and this acting appointment has lapsed officially on 27th January 2021. Mr. Sungi further highlighted and clarified that Mr. Kennedy’s actingappointment was extended from 10th December 2020 to 9th March 2021, however the NEC Decision and the gazettal on the new substantive appointment now supersedes the instrument of acting appointment which I can confirm is in order. The Minister now urges the proper hand-over take-over of office to take place between the former acting Chief Migration Officer and the new Chief Migration Officer in the presence of the Minister for Immigrations and Border Security, Westly Nukundj and the new Immigration & Citizenship Authority Board.

The Systems and Functions of Bureaucracy in Morobe Province are now being looked at and rectified to allow effective Services to flow into the Districts of the province. This was the assurance made by Morobe Governor Hon Ginson Goheyuc Saonu, in relation to queries made recently on the lack of adequate transport services to enable simple farmers to access markets in Lae and elsewhere. Governor Saonu said his team of officers is dedicated around the clock to ensure these mechanisms are being repaired to effectively roll out polices and interventions for the majority of Morobeans to benefit. “Planti yia go pinis, tasol wok igo insait lo ol distrik ino kamap bikos system em ino stret lo halvim ol man na meri lo ples.” The Governor made mention of these changes taking place during the witnessing of the Morobe Province SME Program Awareness over the weekend hosted at Immanuel Lutheran School. “The SME program for Morobe is in line with the National Governments endeavours to empower people of Papua New Guinea in business activities.” “In Morobe Province, I have dedicated officers to work closely and take ownership of the National SME Rollout to be made simple for people in Morobe to access. The program further covers Cooperatives to be registered and captured to access funds for business aspirations.” Governor Saonu said his Government will provide a support budget in the 2021 Morobe Provincial Budget that will serve as an Insurance for Morobeans to be able to have equity backing to access funds to go into business as well. “Within the program, Financial Literacy Trainings will be conducted as well and the program in Morobe is part of the Triple 1 Policy to allow Morobeans to be economically empowered.” The Morobe SME Program is part of the Morobe Provincial Content Plan that is steered to enable Morobeans in the future to contribute more Goods and Services Tax into the coffers of the Province. It is being rolled out by Morobe Provincial Strategy Analyst Noah Ariku and a team of qualified individuals engaged to provide and facilitate trainings financial, banking, budget and close monitoring and implementation of SME Programs in the province. Mr Ariku mentioned that freight subsidy, price support, markets and also business models with effective value chains and supply chains are also being arranged to provide an enabling environment for SMEs.

Controller of the National Pandemic Response David Manning has called on all schools throughout the country to observe COVID-19 protocols as the 2021 academic year begins. Mr Manning said every institutions from primary schools up to tertiary must observe measures in the new normal. The Controller said all institutions must  ensure that students comply to measures in the new normal under COVID-19.  He said washing of hands and wearing of masks must be enforced and that institutions must ensure proper hand washing facilities are built in schools. The measures in the new normal which controller Manning made reference to are as follows: 1. Clean your hands often. Wash with soap and water or use an alcohol based sanitizer; 2. Keep a physical distance of at least 1.5 meters between yourself and others; 3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth; 4. Greet others with a smile, a nod or a simple hello-no handshakes, no fist bumps and no high fives; 5. Cough and sneeze in your bent elbow and not your hands; 6. Limit social gathering and time spent in crowded places; 7. Wear a face mask or face covering in all public places to protect yourself and others; and 8. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. Meanwhile, the country's COVID-19 cases stands at 867 with nine known deaths.  A total of 42,789 people have tested for the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Eight hundred and twenty-eight people have recovered whilst 104 samples are pending at the laboratories. Thirty active cases are in isolation. Sixteen provinces including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) have reported cases. The distribution of the cases is as follows: Provinces           Confirmed Cases NCD                   368 Western Province    214 West New Britain   179 East New Britain     30 New Ireland             21 Eastern Highlands    13 Western Highlands  10 Central                     10 Morobe                       9 East Sepik               3 Enga                       3 Milne Bay               2 West Sepik               2 Southern Highlands    1 AROB                       1 Hela Province       1 TOTAL                     867 Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached 101,561,219 including 500,985 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.  The death toll is 2,196,944 of which 13,915 were reported in the last 24 hours.

The Erima Magpies Rugby Team took the initiative to host a Cleanathon around the Erima community to help raise funds for the team as contenders in any off-season rugby league competition in Port Moresby this year. Erima Magpies recently secured a spot in the Top 24 teams of the Gerehu Rugby League tournament to qualify in the Quarter finals playoffs. The players from both the A and B Grade Divisions started the Cleanathon at around 6am on Saturday cleaning up the streets around the suburb. From sweeping the roads, cutting grasses, cutting flower hedges, raking and even patching the potholes along the main roads. Senior A Grade player, Mr Handape Tatape said the money that the players received during the Cleanathon will go towards prepping and purchasing some basic stuff for the team in preparation for their games. “I really admired the enthusiasm, support and interest from the boys and it has really shown that our team is made up of youths that are very hardworking and can go out of their way to make something happen”, said Handape Tatape. He said that Rugby has taken the boys away from engaging in criminal activities within the community and thanked the GRL competition for organizing such competitions like rugby to keep the boys busy. The Erima Magpies team have come a long way and are active participants in Rugby Competitions around Port Moresby down the years. One of the team players, Costen Kaira said this was a very good initiative set up by the club leaders and it has taught them a lesson to be responsible. “I am happy to give back to my community by taking part in this initiative to clean around suburb I live in and I thank the leaders of the club for organizing such activities”, said Costen. The Erima Magpies are hoping to maintain their standard in playing rugby and they are hoping to play to the best of their abilities in any up and coming competitions.

Prime Minister Hon.James Marape launched the construction of the K200 million Jiwaka provincial headquarters building at Kurumul in Jiwaka on Friday January 29th 2021. Kurumul will now be Jiwaka's provincial capital. PM Marape also announced the National Government’s commitment of K20 million as initial funding to contractor, Essar Projects of India, which will do preparatory earthworks and lay the foundations of the project. Thousands of people, some adorned in traditional attire, from Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Chimbu, Enga and Southern Highlands witnessed the momentous occasion. PM Marape told Jiwaka leaders - Governor Hon. Dr William Tongamp, North Wahgi MP Hon. Dr Fabian Pok, Anglimp-South Wahgi MP Hon. Joe Kuli, and Jimi MP and Minister for Religion Youth and Community Development Hon. Wake Goi to work together for their new province. He said Jiwaka is located in the fertile Wahgi Valley, through which the Highlands Highway passes through, and has great potential for progress. "I want to appeal to you, my good people of Jiwaka, that you have places like Mt Hagen and the Kagamuga International airport, the highway running through your province and above all the fertile Waghi Valley land,” PM Marape said. "I urge you to go into and revive the good old agricultural activities: Rehabilitate the coffee and tea plantations to support your local provincial economy. "The National Government is looking at bringing services, including markets, into the districts and wants to improve and stabilise prices of agricultural commodities and improve freight subsidies. "We want to work with coffee, tea and other agriculture commodity -producing provinces like Jiwaka with better prices so farmers can get a good return for your produce.” PM Marape told the people of Jiwaka that in order for a province to fully function well, and to support the national and district programmes and service delivery, it must have a proper provincial administration. "That is why myself, as the Prime Minister, came to Kurumul here in Jiwaka with nearly half of my senior Cabinet ministers to support the official ground breaking and launching of the Jiwaka Provincial Government administration building and capital." "Your National Government has committed itself to the building of your headquarters and will support your Governor and leaders towards securing the K200 million funding to complete it." "Today, your Government is proud to announce an initial funding of K20million to the contractor to start work.” PM Marape told the people of Jiwaka that the National Government would honour its financial commitment through annual Budget funding support over the next four to five years. PM Marape was accompanied by Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas; Finance and Rural Development Minister Sir John Pundari; State Enterprises Minister Hon.William Duma, Public Service Minister Joe Sungi; Works and Implementation Minister Michael Nali; National Planning and Monitoring Minister Rainbo Paita and several other ministers in his cabinet as well as several department heads who accompanied their ministers.

YWAM Medical Ships Australia & Papua New Guinea (YWAM MS) have donated much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to assist Papua New Guinea’s response to COVID-19.  The PPE, including 20,000 gloves and 3,620 masks, were donated after the National Department of Health and the World Health Organization requested support for frontline health workers in the COVID-19 response. "We thank YWAM for the PPE and we encourage other organizations to do likewise,” said Incident Manager of the National Control Centre for the National Pandemic, Dr Daoni Esorom.  The donation will be followed by YWAM MS’ training and medical ship’s, MV YWAM PNG, redeployment to PNG waters next month.  YWAM MS Managing Director, Mr Ken Mulligan, said that they were delighted to be returning to PNG after making the difficult decision to suspend their outreach schedule last year due to the travel restrictions put in place in response to the pandemic.“YWAM MS has now received a formal invitation from authorities in Papua New Guinea to return to PNG for the purpose of strengthening essential healthcare in rural communities. “While the COVID situation is continually evolving, we plan to have the vessel in a state of readiness to respond flexibly in 2021 as circumstances evolve. The ship will initially dock in Port Moresby, with plans now underway to resume rural healthcare patrols to Western Province for an initial six-month deployment. “We are eager to return and look forward to being back in PNG waters very soon,” said Mr Mulligan. The MV YWAM PNG and her crew are due to set sail from Australia early next month.

Logan Steve, the humorous Facebook famous comedian is behind the renowned household name ‘BLINNG.’ In an interview with PNG Hausbung , he tells us how he started what he is doing, his intentions and where he got his inspiration from. 26 year old Logan, from the Trobriand Islands in Milne Bay Province has over 25, 000 Likes, 42K Followers on his Facebook page, 16K followers on Instagram and a massive 1.55K subscribers on YouTube. His love for jewelry was where he got the name ‘Blinng’ from. Logan is the only child in his family and said that humor came from both his parents. “My parents both have a great sense of humor, the house is always funny so without a doubt that is where I got this fun from”, Logan said with a giggle. A second year student studying Psychology at the University of Papua New Guinea, Logan said that he would not promise anyone to provide consistent content because of his commitment to school and studies and all, but he has done up a time schedule for uploading videos to keep his fans and followers entertained. When asked how he started his videos and what motivated him, Logan jokingly said it was out of boredom that he started recording those videos. “Boredom brought out the best in me. I just stepped out of my comfort zone and BOOM!, it just happened like that”, laughed Logan. Logan added that he got his inspiration from the guys who had the same kind of interest in creating such videos to entertain a targeted audience and like he mentioned earlier, it had really helped him step out of his comfort zone from being camera shy to someone loaded with confidence. When asked about the challenges he faced especially on social media with regards to the negative feedback he received, he smiled and said “We have trolls everywhere, they will hate you for no reason even if you do stuff that is not harmful, they will troll you on Facebook and try to be all negative”, said Logan. Logan has done some collaborations with fellow Papua New Guinean Comedian, Turagunan Comedy and Papa Dazville and quite a number of requests from interested individuals and he is looking forward to working with some big name Comedians. He is very thankful and grateful for the fans and followers that he has. “I appreciate the support so much and for liking my content and for always being there, I’ve got mad love and big respect for you all my fans”, said Logan. Bliing Comedy is hoping to sell some merchandises this year and he is working hard to connect with his audience. “Apart from that, we have big things coming out this year”, said Logan. Logans' advice to those who want to step out of their comfort zone and create videos, "there are always criticisms, either there are constructive or not, ignore the unnecessary ones because at the end of the day, we want to move forward in PNG, just be yourself ".

The National Statistical Office today officially announced the Census 2021 Structural Listing Exercise that will be carried out throughout Papua New Guinea. The Structural Listing is a prerequisite preparatory undertaken to ensure smooth conduct of the 2021 National Census. Acting National Statistician, Mr John Igitoi said this is to ensure all the structures in the country are numbered and counted because all human beings live under structures. “So basically, the Structural Listing Exercise is one of the important aspect of preparatory activities and this is one of the quality control measures", said Mr Igitoi. He added that this exercise will also assist the National Statistical Office to identify the number of structures in a Census Unit (CU) or sometimes called villages. “From this Structural Listing Exercise, we can map out the area and establish the number of field officers or census enumerators/interviewers needed for this areas”, said Mr Igitoi. An Enumerator/Interviewer will interview fifty (50) houses during the enumeration period starting immediately after ‘Reference Night’ which falls on Sunday 11 July, 2021. “For the Listing Exercise, the Lister will either determine whether the house/structure is being occupied by someone or not or if it is a Private Dwelling or a Non-Private Dwelling place.” He added on saying that Private Dwelling structures are places like houses, schools, classrooms or warehouse whilst Non-Private Dwelling places are Guest Houses, Hotels or Institutional Accommodations. Mr Igitoi said that it would cost between K5m and K6m to carry out this Structural Listing Exercise. Currently, Officers have been in all parts of the provinces since last week and currently the listing training exercise are underway to ensure a smooth run. “This exercise will started on 25 January and is expected to run through to mid-February or early march.”

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape says Australia and Papua New Guinea have always been “so close”. He said this during an Australia Day reception at the Australian High Commission on Tuesday (Jan 26, 2021). PM Marape cited, as an example of this closeness, the fact that he had known Australian Prime Minister, Hon. Scott Morrison, since 2008 when he was in the Opposition benches in the Australian Parliament. He said PM Morrison had at that time taken a group across the Kokoda Trail. “That is symbolic,” PM Marape said. “Many Australians, in their own time, always had an occasion for Papua New Guinea. “We’ve been close over many, many years. “In fact, our shared history goes past our Independence in 1975. “Since creation by God, the Creator, Australia and PNG have been this close thus far, and if I’m not wrong, will be this close into the perpetual future.” PM Marape said PNG was “privileged” to have Australia as a “close neighbour”. “Australia has not only been physically close to us, but in every sense, very, very close to us,” he said. “They have been our strongest, biggest, quickest and easiest supporter in as far as bilateral relationships have been thus far. We highly value our strong and vibrant bilateral relationship.” PM Marape said relationships with Australia had been further elevated with PM Morrison through more trade. “That has been encapsulated in a very important document we signed called ‘Comprehensive Strategic Economic Partnership’,” he said. “That now elevates our relationship to two partner nations who will share the future together, and especially the economic gains in both spaces we live in – the Australian economic space as well as the Papua New Guinea economic space – going into the future." “Papua New Guinea still remains a nation of great potential. We have been largely underutilized in as far as harvesting our resources sustainably, to ensure our country gains, but more importantly, our region also participates in meaningful gain from resources God has abundantly blessed our country with.” PM Marape thanked the Australian Government, in what was a first since 1975, for direct intervention of almost K1.5 billion in the PNG Budget – “something never done before”. “For some reason, the Government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, decided to pick the moment we took office,” he said. “This has nothing to do with him and me, but more to do with the sincerity, the matter in which we opened our books to Australia, ADB, World Bank, IMF. “The Australian Government, seeing the reforms we were doing and seeing our honesty, decided to ensure for the first time that we received over K1.47 billion with zero per cent (interest) against the lending." “They ensured that we sailed past 2019, in what was a hard year, but more importantly, we were able to successfully deliver over 95 per cent of our Budget deliverables in 2020.” PM Marape said PNG had assisted Australia during the 2020 bushfire “and when Papua New Guinea gets stronger, bigger and better into the future, we will stand with Australia as a partner in sharing development assistance to our region”. PM Marape also thanked Australia for its COVID-19 intervention in 2020.

Nine (9) teachers out of the twelve (12) who were investigated have been terminated by the Western Highlands Provincial Education Board for their involvement in helping students cheat in the 2019 National Examinations. Secretary for Education, Dr. Uke Kombra commended the Western Highlands Provincial Education Board for investigating and terminating the teachers who assisted students to cheat. “The action taken by the PEB is very encouraging and should act as a deterrent to other teachers and students in future.” The Department of Education advises that it has in place strategies to contain cheating in the national examinations. These strategies include: 1.         Producing answer sheets after the examinations. The answer sheets will be produced after the examinations have been conducted. Therefore, no one should be claiming that they have the answer sheet before the examinations are conducted. 2.         Severe penalties for both students and schools caught cheating. Any incidences of cheating must be reported quickly to the Secondary School Inspectors and where necessary to the police. Any student caught cheating on site or after the results are processed by the Measurement Services Division will not be certificated and his or her schools’ results will be nullified. Teachers assisting students to cheat will be severely dealt with including deregistration and termination. The Department of Education started taking up this tough approach a few years ago because it wants to ensure that the final examinations are fair and transparent and that students are rewarded based on their commitment and hard work. Examination at times is a very stressful experience for students. “Parents and guardians, teachers and communities must fully support the students so that they do not resort to cheating during exams. “I call on provincial and school administrations together with the Boards of Governors, Governing Councils and Managements to ensure that no malpractices are allowed in the examinations.”

Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning has clarified that all incoming passengers will be required to do a 14-day quarantine regardless of the country from which they originally travelled from. This is for all passengers who were approved to enter PNG from the 15th of January onwards. Mr Manning made this clarification following misunderstandings which seem to have given rise to different requirements being sent out by airline operators. However, the Controller can grant exemptions to this requirement, both for persons approved to enter PNG before and after 15 January. Mr Manning said he expects the airlines to respect this directive and comply with it. Further Mr Manning has directed that, “Unless provided an exemption in writing people will be required upon arrival to have a tracking app put on their smartphones if going into a hotel quarantine or another location not designated in the measures. This is a requirement a person must meet upon arrival and not before they board an aircraft for PNG. Mr Manning said if a moratorium is to be put in place as per Measure 2.25 due to advice from the Secretary of the National Department of Health regarding heightened risks certain regions or countries present, the Direction will be published online with the list of countries and other relevant details. Memo to Air Operators