West New Britain Provincial Government presented its K377 million budget to the Prime Minister James Marape yesterday.
When receiving the budget from Governor Sasindran Muthuvel, Prime Minister Marape emphasized that West New Britain is one of the economically important provinces in Papua New Guinea.
“This province is one of a few provinces that are growing in its internal revenue,” Prime Minister Marape stated.
The Budget was designed under the theme ‘Enabling Growth Opportunities’, and aims to foster development across the province’s districts, focusing on Local Level Government capacity building, maintenance programmes, district road counterpart funding, infrastructural projects like Amulut and Kokopo Jetties, Kimbe-Kandrian Highway, Kandrian Power Station connectivity and power generation, alongside agriculture extension services.
While acknowledging the efforts of Governor Muthuvel, District MPs and the 12 Local Level Governments, Prime Minister Marape highlighted their roles in making the K377,287,700 budget a reality. The budget is a blend of national grants totaling K284 million, internal revenue of K93 million, and an innovative inclusion of K99 million in unspent revenue from 2023.
Furthermore, Prime Minister extended an apology for the delayed completion of the provincial hospital, reassuring the people of West New Britain of the national government’s dedication by allocating K20 million for the hospital in 2024.
“This is a national government focus area and this year we’ve allocated K20 million counterpart funding,” Prime Minister Marape affirmed, marking the hospital’s completion as a top priority for the Health Department and Treasury.
The ceremony was witnessed by notable figures including Kandrian-Gloucester MP Joseph Lelang, Talasea MP Freddie Kumai, and the Provincial Administrator Leo Mapmani.
