By Bethanie Harriman – EM TV, Lae
Traditional landowners of Lae City, the Ahi, have registered their land to be leased to investors wanting to do business in Lae.
The landowner company, Mopong Business Group, have developed another subsidiary company called the Yalu Industrial Park.
The park is 145 hectares of land ready to be leased, near the K800 million Lae-Nadzab highway.
The local landowner company headed by locals has registered land for commercial leases.
“Whatever the development, it will still benefit everyone in Yalu,” says Mopong chairman, Kepuctong Kolam.
He says the incentive for lifestyle-changing development was the main thinking behind the industrial park idea.
However, the arrangement is unique: they still own the land that has been given back to them by the provincial government after being leased for agricultural purposes in 1951.
The two clans that make up the Mopong Business Group aim to take part in the development after lessons learnt from other Ahi landowners, who sold their land to investors and became excluded from participation in the development process.
It comes as the Lae Tidal Basin Project passed its first phase of construction, improvements to roads and the prospects of tuna processing and other ventures.
Land has become widely sought after, but most have been leased out, sold and occupied by settlements.
The infrastructure developments will make Lae more conducive for investments.
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