By Rositta Liosi – EMTV Online
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has made great strides in their efforts to provide infrastructure development in PNG.
The various assistance programs funded by ADB and its project partners have encountered challenges in implementation and development.
Start-up delays result in the loss of financial and economic benefits as well as opportunities.
Cost estimates have become irrelevant because not many bidders participate in the bidding process.
An extreme challenge for ADB is the limited capacity in the country, at one point there was no recruitment of national consultants.
Hussain Haider, Infrastructure Specialist, speaking at the Asian Development Bank Year-in-Review for 2015 said that, “In our Highlands Road Projects our contractors engaged two local contractors and not one of them could complete the section they were given.”
In order to combat the capacity issue in the country ADB is increasing the size of contract packages in order to allow bigger contractors to provide a ‘fertile’ ground for local contractors, consultants, and the national experts to grow.
Furthermore there is also the fiscal situation, which arose in August whereby PNG was operating with a K2 billion deficit and no one including ADB was immune to that.
As a result, ADB has departed from conventional small advanced payments. Bigger advanced payments are required to ensure that the projects keep moving and aid the contractors and consultants with a smooth starting in terms of implementation.
ADB is appreciative that the PNG government sees the effectiveness of their implementations and as a result of that there has been continuous and persistent communications between ADB and the government in order to ensure that funding is received to carry out its assistance programs.
Related Articles
ADB’s Assistance Programs
Effective Public Spending Vital to Protect Development Gains
ADB’s Update on PNG Economy & 2016 Budget Update
