PAPUA New Guinea will give K5 million to Niue to build its new parliament house, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced yesterday.
He said this at a joint news conference with visiting Niue Premier Toke Tufukia Talagi. Talagi is in Port Moresby for a two-day visit during which diplomatic relations will be signed today, strengthening ties which go as far back as the late 1800s, when Niuean missionaries were here. “Initially K5 million will be next year to establish a parliament building, and from there we’ll see how the construction goes, and how much we can further help,” O’Neill said. “We will start constructing their parliament with designs that the premier will approve himself and, hopefully, one of our contractors with Niuean origin can go back there and build this.” O’Neill said PNG’s relationship with Niue went back as far as the early 1900s when missionaries from that country were here. Talagi thanked O’Neill for the assistance. “The current parliament was made unsafe by a cyclone in 2004 so we’ve had to shift it,” he said. “It’s not as stable as it should be, therefore, we appreciate very much the gesture given by Papua New Guinea. “This is the first time, I’ve visited a Pacific country on a State visit and I appreciate that very much.” Talagi revealed that one of the early Niuean missionaries to PNG was his great, great, grandfather. “We have links that go back with Christianity,” he said. “Niue missionaries came here in the late 1800s, early 1900s. “One of them got married to a Papua New Guinean. “It’s a link that very few people in Niue understand and or appreciate. We’ve always had a historical link with Papua New Guinea.” “I appreciate the fact that Papua New Guinea is a growing economy with huge resources, it’s got a lot of challenges as well, and so on. “It seems fitting sometimes that we share our resources, and we are talking about fisheries here. “We haven’t managed our fisheries as well as we should and I believe we should be managing it so that we can create jobs. “Certainly, for Papua New Guinea, there are processing facilities, and we have fish that we can sell.” Talagi said he was looking forward to visiting PNG again during the Pacific Islands Forum next August. Comments are closed.
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