By Wasita Royal
The teak project, planting of big timber trees that can be grown in commercial plantations which is emphasized in East New Britain was officially launched last Friday by the Provincial Government in Kokopo.
The launching conceded with the inauguration of Governor Michael Marum’s patronship to the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Culture (OISCA) Rabaul chapter.
OISCA Board of Chairman Chief Sinai Brown said that the partnership between OISCA and the Provincial Government is to give the governor the ownership and honour, not to the institution but to the students because the school has graduated a lot of successful people.
Mr Brown said OSCA has big innovative programs where they can send industrial people to Japan to work there and can come back home with money instead of sending people for fruit picking in Australia.
“That is the agreement that we want here in this partnership and this is something that will benefit the people of the province,” he said.
Mr Brown said being a patron means you are the guidance, protector and supporter of OISCA in the years to come and OISCA management is thankful to the Governor for accepting the challenge.
He added that OISCA has partnered with other stakeholders in carrying out the teak project where awareness, nurseries and planting has reached almost all the four districts.
This particular log tree known as teak main objective is for families to build their houses to increase the families living standard and secondly to sell for income to sustain family’s welfare.
Mr Marum accepted the patronship and thanked OISCA management for the partnership stating that they will work together to roll out the program as well as other agriculture programs to benefit the people of the province.
The Governor also announced that the Provincial Executive Council (PEC) last Friday also passed a paper regarding the teak project and urged the people to pant this tree and promote reforestation and preserve their natural resources.
