ADB: More money spent on roads

OF the government’s four priority areas, infrastructure – especially roads – has received more attention from the government in terms of money in recent years, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says.   

Country economist Aaron Batten said that yesterday when presenting Asian development outlook for 2014 that infrastructure in particular had been a key focus of government spending, particularly over last two years.

Batten said from early independence period up until the early 2000s, the total government spending in real terms declined quite rapidly.

“The proportion of the budget dropped from about 15 per cent to about 3 per cent in early 2000,” he said. 

“During this period, it was notable that the quality of the roads deteriorated quite rapidly.

“Over the last decade, however, that trend 

has been reversed and the government has placed a  big focus on allocating more money to the sector.” 

 “Total budget allocation has increased from about 5% to about to about 15% this year, which is a huge increase for PNG.”  

Batten said the government’s expenditure allocated to four key sectors – health, law and order, education and infrastructure – had increased from about 17% in 2007 to over 45% of the total budget this year.

“A key highlight for this year’s ADB outlook was what role can the government’s fiscal policy – budget – allocation of government’s funding play? What role can it (budget) play to help promote inclusive economic growth path for the country and how can it help to stimulate high rates of job creation and employment of PNG?

“And against this background, the Asian Development Outlook highlights that the government has made  strong progress over the last four or five years, and improving the allocation for budget funding to key sectors of the economy.”