Papua New Guinea Opposition has called on the government to explain the paralyzing martial- law type restrictions that has crippled the economy to the point where it will take years to return to normal. Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Bolden Namath said: "Blaming Covid 19 is not good enough. There are no hospitals full of Covid-19 patients. There has virtually been no Covid death. The few deaths that have been declared as Covid deaths are only those with pre-existing medical conditions. "Yet thousands of our people are without work. The education of our children have been disrupted beyond possible correction this year. Businesses have been disrupted and many have closed operations. The restrictions imposed on our people are causing serious impacts and disrupting activities across the
country. "The revised Gross Domestic Product has fallen K11 billion in 2020 compared to the 2020 Budget Projections, the fiscal deficit has increased by K2 billion and the economy has gone into negative growth. "Revenue has fallen by K2.7 billion and yet the government has not done enough to reduce expenditure, thus increasing the deficit to an unprecedented K6.6 billion equivalent to 8.1 per cent of GDP. This increases the pressure to borrow more or print more money - both of which options carry their own short term and long term negative consequences. "One operating gold mine has been forced closed and new resource development projects are on hold. The only person who is announcing that new projects will come on .stream is the Prime Minister, James Marape but he has absolutely no control over or say on their investment decisions. Under the Marape regime, foreign investors are keeping away. "All he has to do is talk to the Mineral Resource Authority and see the significant fall in exploration activities around the country. No one wants to invest in PNG under James Marape except for shadowy characters". "James Marape must realize it is his words and actions that are to blame for this state of affairs. "| blame him and his army of advisors for all this mess. They never listened to us when the Opposition first called for a closure of our international borders, for strict controls on international travels and to declare our international ports and provinces sharing international borders as hot-spots, but the government did not take heed. "Instead the Prime Minister gave us a nationwide State of Emergency and ran it like a martial law crackdown for civil unrest and not a health emergency as it was. "Then seeing no alarming numbers to justify the actions, the government started cooking up the numbers of those infected or dead with absolutely no verification Announced confirmed cases turned out to be negative. "In between all these James Marape has allowed international flights for a few select foreigners without adequate checks. He did not release promised money to Western and Sandaun provinces who share the common border with Indonesia with the result that most confirmed cases were in Western province and the Ok Tedi mine was forced to close- "Each time we raised concerns about all these, his army of advisers and ministers have raised the prepared and prepped chorus that all Covid protocols have been observed. "Now the Prime Minister has announced a relaxation on restrictions to international flights. "We call on the Prime Minister to provide adequate explanations for all these on- the-go, whimsical copy-cat decisions that have caused the country so much hardship and endangering the lives of our people. "We call further for credentials for each of his army of consultants. — with Franck Kawage. Press Release Next : PNG Police Minister Kramer Tells Allan, Atiyafa Not To Be Anxious Comments are closed.
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