Official Centre Overseas

Png Chooses Sydney For Its First

By OALA OALA-RARUA, Commissioner in Australia for the Papua New Guinea Government.

The opening of Papua New Guinea House in Sydney marks another step in our country s gradual ivolvement in the world community. Just over seven months ago we became a self-governing country, fff-government marked the beginning of a realistic and meaningful relationship between Papua New minea and Australia. Even though, until independence, Australia is still responsible for our dealings r ith other countries, the official opening of our first government office in Australia further reinforces the jalistic and meaningful relationship our government wishes to achieve with Australia.

Papua New Guinea House in ydney is not only the first offi ial government office to be pened in Australia, but also the rst to be opened in the world.

PNG was given naming rights for ie building, to identify it as the lajor base for the country’s opera ons and links with Australia.

It is fitting that this first office lould be in Australia—a country lat has assisted and helped us to dvance to where we find ourselves )day, ready to take our place in the orld community.

As the first Papua New Guinea lovernment Commissioner to Aust ria I am sure that the opening of ur government office in Sydney will ssist Papua New Guinea and Aust ria to forge meaningful relation lips as bordering neighbours.

The Papua New Guinea Govern lent Commission in Australia, now as offices in both Canberra and Syd ey. While the Canberra office will eal with the usual diplomatic mat jrs and will be regarded as the head uarters of our mission in Australia, ydney will remain the biggest and usiest part of our mission, looking fter all our consular and trade ctivities.

Sydney activities

The old Sydney office of the for ier External Territories Department as now become part of our mission >n loan to us from the Australian )epartment of Foreign Affairs but working with us and responsible to iur Government Representative, Mr Vincent Eri.

Our representative in Sydney will leal with the following activities: I Procurement, including contracts and tenders.

I Permits. • Trade promotion and research. • Information and public relations, a Accounts.

The Papua New Guinea Represen tative in Sydney, Mr Vincent Eri, took up his appointment in July, re placing Mr Robin Kumaina, who has been appointed PNG’s first Commis sioner in Jakarta. Mr Eri, born at Moreave Village, Gulf District, in 1936, three times acted as Director of Education, once for six months.

Education has been his forte since training as a teacher in the early 19505. He taught at various Gulf District Schools, while continuing his studies, till 1962. He then became an acting District Inspector of Schools.

He went into PNG University in 1967 and graduated BA. Near the end of 1973, Mr Eri was Acting Director of what was then the Department of Information and Extension Services.

This is now the Office of Information.

Mr Eri is the author of “The Crocodile”, the first novel published by a New Guinean.

This is where all the action is

The PNG Government has a three year lease of five floors of the 10storey Papua New Guinea House, with the option of a renewal for a further three years. While it has no rights over the rest of the building, the owners, A. V. Jennings, will give PNG first refusal when other tenants come along.

There is a New Guinean at the head of the staff in PNG House as representative, to become consul or consul-general when PNG becomes independent. The staff, mostly Aus tralians, are paid by the Australian Government, and they handle mainly the details of entry permits and buy ing and contracts.

The permit section is processing hundreds of entry applications, on the split-level ground floor. The ad ministration is on the first floor, and the buying and contract section, deal ing in millions of dollars, is on the second floor. The third floor, used for the PNG festival in July, will probably be the showplace of the building.

This floor will depict many facets of life in PNG—her products, the way of life of the people, their traditions, their handicrafts. It will be open to the public. It could be come the centre for promoting the tourist industry in Papua New Guinea.

The PNG Representative, Mr Vincent Eri, and his staff are on the 10th and top floor. There will also be a reference library on the 10th

Mr Vincent Eri.

small piece of

ior, providing a wealth of informa ,n about PNG. This is in the pre ss of being built up. There is also conference room on this floor.

There is an open verandah on the th floor, looking over part of the mmercial section of Sydney. A lection of pot plants, and easy airs, make a good setting for a re ced conference.

The visitor does not have much ance to forget he is in a small ;ce of PNG when he is in New uinea House. Artifacts, carvings, at covers and so on all tell some >ry of PNG.

The Papua New Guinea Govem ent hopes that the remaining floors 11 be tenanted by firms which are lively engaged in business with sIG.

A large area of one floor was ased to Territory Airlines in June.

Papua New Guinea House is a inforced concrete structure with ib floors, which have upturned edge :ams to form an extensive facade, le facade is finished in plastic lated window frames and incor >rates gloss-finished asbestos cement ature panels. An interesting feature : the building is the magnetically ►ded card key system which allows 1 hours access seven days a week, hile maintaining office security.

The property is strategically situ ed, close to an underground rail ay station, and only a block away om a bus terminal. It is within alking distance of the heart of the shopping area.

As a lead up to the official open g of PNG’s first office overseas, a iltural festival was arranged, start g on July 22. A continuous screen g depicted life in the country in s many aspects, including exhibitions : natives carving wood. The Mekeo mce group performed traditional inces daily. On display were facets I life in the country—traditional, immercial, agricultural, etc.

Arrangements were made to have irties of schoolchildren visit the istival, which was open to the pub- The Chief Minister, Mr Michael 3mare, was scheduled to arrive in /dney on July 25. He was expected, her the official opening, to go to anberra for a couple of days, and ) fly back to PNG on July 29.