Papna New Guinea moves

NEW OFFICES OPEN IN SUVA AND WELLINGTON

Papna New Guinea moves out into the Pacific

By a staff writer

Papua New Guinea has moved into the Pacific in a big way with the opening in December of government offices in Wellington and Suva. Apart from Djakarta, they are the first PNG offices to be opened outside Australia, and indicate the importance that self-governing PNG attaches to re lations in its own region.

PNG Government offices in Europe, Japan and the United States will follow later.

PNG Commissioner in New Zea land is Mr Leo Morgan. Mr Evertius Romney is PNG Commissioner in Fiji.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Bill Rowling, performed the opening ceremony in Wellington. In Suva, in the absence of Prime Minis ter Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in Europe at a EEC meeting, the De puty Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, declared the office open. The PNG Chief Minister, Mr Michael Somare, attended each function.

Each office has a second secretary, two typists, two drivers and adminis trative officers. Each has a different function. The Suva office has an all embracing brief of regional co operation, while in Wellington in the early days the accent is on recruit ment of specialist staff for two-year contracts in the PNG public service and trade.

In time it is expected that the Suva office will extend its activities to South Pacific countries and terri tories beyond Fiji. PNG-Fiji trade could be a possibility, which will mean a shipping link. As the asso ciation between the two countries develops there will be a need for more than one air service a week.

There will certainly be an inter change of ideas about tourism, and in that field Fiji has plenty of experi ence, certainly enough to advise PNG of the advantages and the pit falls.

The office in Suva is in Sukuna House, a multi-storey building at the junction of MacArthur Street and Victoria Parade. Two other dip lomatic missions have their offices in this building—New Zealand and the United States.

The Wellington office is at 82 Kent Street. Since it opened, Mr Morgan has been trying to recruit teachers, doctors and engineers for the PNG public service. This is not an easy task, particularly for tea chers, who lose their places in the seniority list during long absences.

However, that is not an insurmount able problem, and if New Zealand genuinely wishes to help PNG, and there is little doubt that she does, then a simple amendment to the re gulations would overcome it. This recruitment is in a different category from the other aid New Zealand gives to PNG (see separate story).

Mr Morgan will also be looking

for opportunities to further his coun try’s trade with NZ, to increase the amount of timber already exported there, and to add a few commodities, such as tea and coffee.

The PNG Government policy is to extend its diplomatic relationships in the South Pacific, and that is why three of the first four offices set up overseas were in Australia, New Zea land and Fiji (the fourth is in Indonesia).

The men directing the Wellington and Suva offices are young. Mr Morgan, a Bougainvillean, is 30, married and has three children. Mr Romney, BA, Dip Adm, is 40, and also has three children.

The handshake and the smiles when Chief Minister Michael Somare wel corned Fiji Prime Minister Ratu Sii Kamisese Mara in Port Moresby in May made a fitting start to the new relation ship between inde pendent Fiji and soon-to-be

independent Papua

New Guinea. The new PNG office now opened in Suva will keep the handshakes and smiles going—in other Island terri tories as well as in Fiji, because the Suva office will serve them also.