Yeri Penna

PNG Kickboxing Federation is making a comeback next month at Goroka for its National Championships to be held on the 5 th to 7 th Next month. The tournament will see 19 provinces battling it out in professional and armature divisions for a spot in the upcoming PNG Games in East New Britain in November and also for a spot in the World Championships in Argentina next year. President of the PNGKBF, Stanley Nandex said the sport has done very well in the past few years and it should continue to do so. Nandex who came out to the media recently to announce the national championships also welcomed fighter, Rickson Yamo onboard. Mr Yamo and the Federation for years had misunderstandings in the past but had decided to leave that aside and focus on the future of Kickboxing which they both parties agreed were bigger than them. “Due to circumstances from international influence, some of our fighters had been led by foreign promoters. That has resulted in disagreement within the organ

Identifying local Seafood businesses in PNG and providing potential markets for them was the purpose of the first ever Seafood and Technology Exposition in Port Moresby hosted by National; Fisheries Authority this week. The 54 seafood exhibitors from PNG and the Pacific took part in the three day event at the Sir John Guiese indoor complex between the 12th September and 14 th , 2017. Deputy Managing Director of NFA Phillip Polon said while PNG has much potential in the fishing industry, it has still yet to fully tap into the sector to realize it’s benefits. Mr Polon said the exhibition was to see whether there was interest within the region and to come together to realize what businesses there are in terms of fishing in PNG and the region in order to see what can be done. “The biggest thing on our path for PNG itself is for us to note who is there in the fishing sector and who is marketing and doing whatever business under the industry. It is one of the opportunities t

Welete Wararu, Executive Manger of National Fisheries Authority’s Provincial Support & Industry Development. T una is a strategic asset which can bring developments to the country if PNG takes the industry seriously. This is according to Executive Manger of National Fisheries Authority’s Provincial Support & Industry Development, Welete Wararu. Ms Wararu said PNG needs to tap into the industry if its dream is to be the Tuna Capital in the World. The three days Seafood Exhibition held in Port Moresby this week is Wararu’s brainchild and it was the first for PNG to host such an event that saw not only local seafood exhibitors displaying their products but also people from the neighboring Pacific Islands. Ms Wararu said she’s very proud of the turnout of exhibitors and partners who have shown keen interest in exposing PNG’s fishing products. “The dates of this event were not picked out of the blue. It is line with all the other global seafood shows. T

Teachers throughout the country will now be able to send real time data to their superiors where ever they are through an Application called, MyPNGSchool , which was launched at the state function room in Parliament. The app will seek to relive the challenges Department of Education has been experiencing in the past years in terms of school data. First Assistant Secretary, Curriculum and Standards, Dr. Titus Hatagen said many times provinces have been late in submitting data’s where some information had been inflated. He said the application will be accessible to teachers’ right in the rural areas where information will be uploaded and cross checked by inspectors before submitting it through to the department.   “The process involves four steps where firstly an SMS will be sent to teacher’s phones signaling them of data to be sent. Head teachers will fill in data on formatted templates that will be displayed in the phone. After that head teachers will send the data to sch

TEN provinces with Provincial Health Authorities are doing better medically then provinces without PHA's. A midterm review of the 10 Provincial Health Authorities this year revealed the effectiveness of PHAs. Public hospitals and rural health facilities like aid post and health centers are better run in provinces with PHAs. Districts in provinces without PHAs have a hard time trying to co-ordinate and run rural health facilities.   Minister for Health and HIV-Aids, Sir Puka Temu said he is planning to set up PHAs in all provinces of the country according to the report. “The government this term is going to facilitate the establishment of PHA throughout the country by June next year because I believe one system is better than two systems. Functional grants received by provinces are varied and not fixed because of two different systems that are existing. Our aim now is to have health functional grunts given through PHA’s where there is a CEO and Board that will look a

Manus Province will see a loss of K23Million annually after the Asylum Seekers Processing Center has come to a closure. The Province which has been benefiting from the spin off businesses provided by the Center will have lost over 1200 jobs and 100 Small and Medium Entrepreneurs going out of business. Governor for Manus raised concerns in Parliament this week that successive governments’ in the past have not provided a fall back plan for Manus and as a result the province’s internal revenue will drop from K25Million to K1.5 Million annually. Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, who has recently visited Manus said the O’Neil/Abel government has plans to create a Special Economic Zone in Manus and it will begin by allocating a budget for the province next year. “This government is ready to set up a special economic zone in Manu where we will allocate a budget for Manus to start a Marine Park on the West Coast of Manus. We will also put money to pla

Close to K300Million has been blown up by public servants over the budgeted amount and this year, it is expected to increase by K130Million (K430Million), according to Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill. O’Neill while commenting on the presentation of the National Supplementary Budget this week in parliament said many cuts in the budget is to compensate for the over expenditure of public servants every year. “No country like ours would continue to fund that kind of blow outs. We have talked about this issue over and over again but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. We have given some specific timelines and guidelines, particularly expenditures on salaries, office expenses and all these cost blow outs that is depriving the right of our people of basic services because we are diverting funds to meet this expenses. “The treasurer are trying to get this back on track by providing the supplementary budget so that we cut costs and not create expenditure. The economy when we first