Pangu Pati response to NRI's rating

PNG Deputy Opposition Leader and Parliamentary Leader of Pangu Pati   Sam Basil, has responded to a low rating of Pangu Pati’s policies by the National Research Institute (NRI).
Pangu Pati leader  Sam Basil said ‘I am building the Pangu Pati machinery’. We are not hinging our policy agenda exclusively on the coffee industry but I do acknowledge its K500m contribution to PNG’s GDP. I am simply trying to impress upon people that a single growth industry like coffee can sustain livelihoods if we have the political will to rehabilitate our once thriving coffee industry.”
Mr Basil said “I want to ensure that my government will create an enabling environment for rural farming families to enjoy the full benefit of their hard work on the land.”

The Deputy Opposition Leader explained that his party’s policies are designed to reflect the local conditions of the majority of Papua New Guineans. “That’s why we are promising to invest at ward and local level. We are trying to create more efficient systems at district level so that; the pressure is taken off Waigani. We want to create the legislative and policy space for cooperation in our governing system so that we can stay focused on service delivery as legislators.”

Mr Basil says “Pangu Pati is building an alternative revenue-earning portfolio that can sustain PNGs core development priorities like health, education, infrastructure and law and order.
He said “with the promise of solid export earnings, related industry will thrive when money is circulating in rural communities. This is how to sustain economic activity, we create jobs and we ensure growth.”
Mr Basil says “Our resource revenues have been depleted because of incompetent national leadership. I want to rehabilitate the public sector and focus our efforts on restoring the rule of law and I will personally ensure that law and justice become priorities again.
The irresponsible reporting of a propaganda machine like PNG Breaking News must not be allowed to derail our genuine development aspirations.
Pangu Pati has worked solidly to rebrand its policies to capture PNG’s exponential population growth. My advisors are assessing the collateral damage created by the economic mismanagement of a few elites.

The coffee sector is a single growth sector requiring our attention under a newly constituted government. Pangu Pati will give prominence to growth industries like cocoa, vanilla, rice, oil palm and rubber again. This will include construction and manufacturing. Our massive Agriculture industry will have the capability to rescue our weak economy in view of PNG’s exhausted petroleum and energy earnings and poor tax collection efforts.
Mr Basil says he is concerned that the assessment of Pangu Pati’s policies has occurred without broader references to its proposed raft of policy measures and national priorities.
‘We are not in the business of sensationalizing our ideas and plans’ said Mr Basil. We have made frank assessments of PNGs deteriorating economic conditions especially the expanding deficit, the confused expenditure plans, and the absence of a debt and revenue strategy.