Papua New Guinea’s population of 5.2 million is one of the most isolated in the world. Four out of five live in rugged mountainous or coastal terrain, many without even rudimentary access. Most of the 6,500 km of coastline in the maritime provinces are accessible only by sea. Pockets of population elsewhere, particularly along the Sepik, Fly and Ramu river systems, can only be reached by transport as basic as dugout canoes. Roads, where they exist, are poorly maintained and provide unreliable, infrequent, high-cost road transport services. Even major highways, once well maintained and offering modern, efficient and competitive services, now experience closure in wet weather and frequent vehicle breakdowns. Air services are prohibitively expensive for the rural population. The country, therefore, faces challenges unlike any other country in the region. | Projects | Data | Maps | | |  |
Roads and Highways Papua New Guinea's public road network is thought to amount to some 25,000 km. 16,540 kms were identified and incorporated in a database established by the Road Asset Management System Projects. Some 8,460 km remain unaccounted for.  Of the identified roads, national roads account for 8422 km (52 percent) and provincial roads 8,119 km (48 percent). Central Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, East Sepik, Madang and West New Britain have the most extensive networks.
Apart from the Highlands Highway linking Lae with Goroka, Kundiawa, Mount Hagen, Mendi and their hinterlands, most of the national network is discontinuous, serving the relatively well-developed areas around the main commercial centers. The poorest parts of the country are the most poorly served by the road network. Back to top Urban Transport Traffic levels are very low: 74 percent of the national network carries less than 500 vehicles per day and 89 percent less than 1,000 vehicles a day. Traffic on the provincial and lower-level networks is much lower. Rural Transport The impact of deteriorating accessibility on life in rural communities are evident in lower standards of health and education, declining availability of goods and services, and high-cost and unreliable transport services. Whereas in the past people could carry a basket of vegetables or bag of coffee for market to the nearest road-head knowing that a transport service will be available there, they now risk finding none available and their produce going to spoil. The sick can no longer be assured of access to a clinic or hospital, and the medical services available there have deteriorated too, partly due to the increased costs of transport.  Accessibility standards are declining. Already some 35 percent of the population lives more than 10 km from a national road and 17 percent from any road at all, and the roads are getting worse.
As roads have deteriorated, transport costs have increased from 40 and 60 percent in real terms. Fewer market opportunities are available and people can afford fewer daily necessities. People are often reverting to a subsistence living or deserting the rural areas for the limited prospect of employment in urban centers. Health and education indicators are generally falling and government control is weakening. Back to top Railways Papua New Guinea's rough terrain mean. For the most part, the country has remained on the periphery of advances in transport technology. This is particularly true of railed transport which has provided the basis of modern transport networks elsewhere. There were a large number of light tramways and railways built over the past century, but they are no longer in use or have been dismantled. Back to top Inland Waterways  According to 2003 data, the inland waterways are thought to amount to some 10,940 km. Under the National Transport Development Plan 2001-2010, the main aims were to:
Fund the economically feasible costs of maintenance, rehabilitation and construction of maritime facilities and the improvement of navaids and boat services. Establish a sustainable program to maintain the existing transport infrastructure such as ports, wharves, jetties, ramps, landing areas, pontoons and warehouses. Ensure that half the total expenditure in water transport is devoted to maintenance of facilities and assets.
Just as for roads, budget allocations have not kept pace with needs. There is a substantial backlog to be dealt with. Back to top Ports and Shipping With its dispersed population, Papua New Guinea’s coastal shipping services takes on special significance in providing access to rural communities. 17 commercial ports, mostly very small, and innumerable small wharves, jetties and beach landings provide the basic infrastructure for maritime services, but the majority of these are in poor condition and carry very little traffic. The ports serving Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe, and Rabaul carry international and coastal traffic and have a reasonable level of infrastructure, but lesser ports, ranging from those at Wewak, Kavieng, Oro Bay and Alotau to mere timber jetties and beach landings, provide only a basic service for coastal traffic and are often unusable in bad weather. Many landings involve loading and offloading over the ship’s side from/to small village “banana” boats and canoes. Madang, serving many small coastal vessels, and Kimbe, serving agricultural exports, are the most frequently visited ports, but Port Moresby, Lae and Rabaul handle the most cargo; most imports pass through Lae and Port Moresby.  Lae is the main import/export point for the populous Highlands region, the goods moved from/to the port by road. Annual throughput by the major ports has been growing at about the rate of population growth with import/export tonnages (increasingly containerized, but also including a growing logging trade) accounting for about a third of the total and most of the growth.
Passenger cruise visits have started to grow, albeit from a low base. Coastal passenger operations are significant between the larger centers like Lae, Madang, Kimbe, Kavieng and Buka, but recent falls in traffic have led to some service reductions. Community-based services also extend to many smaller coastal villages, often in small, open, over-loaded craft operating over stretches of open sea without safety facilities or navigation aids. Coastal services are of several types provided by: primary shipping lines, with scheduled or semi-scheduled services mostly focusing on the major ports; secondary shipping lines, also providing scheduled or semi-scheduled services to a mix of large and small ports; specialized, smaller and often regional shipping companies providing specific services to industry, including charters; operators of small commercial craft providing general goods and passenger services; community based organizations providing semi-commercial services mostly for their own members; and subsidized provincial government services. Services in the first of these categories are provided by two lines, both carrying only cargo. One operates strictly as a liner service, the other semi-scheduled and chartered services with departures depending on cargo availability. There is one main secondary carrier serving northern coast and island ports from Alotau in the east to Vanimo in the west, and as far north into the islands as Buka carrying both passengers and cargo. A second operates a mix of cargo, passenger and cargo/passenger vessels from a base in Rabaul. For the most part, even between Port Moresby and Lae, the coastal routes are poorly-equipped with navigational aids (navaids). The Fly River and its estuary is an exception; there, navaids are maintained by private mining and oil companies. Elsewhere, local companies and community groups operate largely without charts or navaids and rely on the local knowledge and skills of their ships’ masters. Sudden storms, mangrove swamps, shifting mud and sand banks and floating obstructions make journeys hazardous. Simple, low-cost navaids would significantly reduce the risks involved. Back to top Air Transport For its size and population, Papua New Guinea has a relatively well-developed system of air services (although it has been more extensive in the past), necessitated by its topography, the isolation of pockets of population and the difficulties in establishing road access.  Government policy encourages competition in air services, but the market is very thin and state-owned Air Niugini holds an effective monopoly over most important routes.
Even so, its financial performance has been very poor, the result of low load factors, poor selection of aircraft, lack of investment, heavy debt repayment obligations, poor management and the difficulty of meeting dollar-denominated costs with revenues largely in devalued Kina. An attempt to sell 49 percent of the airline in 1998 failed. It is still the Government’s policy to privatize, but this is unlikely until its financial performance improves. This would require significant staffing cuts (it has some 200-300 excess staff) and other cost savings, for which a program recently re-commenced. In common with the equivalent facilities in the maritime sector, airport and air safety infrastructure has suffered from funding shortages. With lack of Government budget-funded investment and maintenance, there has been deterioration in the condition of runways, taxiways, aprons and visual aids in most major airports and of runways at secondary airports, frequently causing the diversion and cancellation of services. An AusAID-funded Airport Maintenance Project is currently providing assistance with the restoration and maintenance of airport facilities, as well as the preparation of new regulatory material to upgrade the air safety standards and practices of the new Civil Aviation Authority. This project follows on from an earlier AusAID-funded Airport Maintenance and Upgrading Project completed in 2000. In the longer term, sustainability of airport and air safety infrastructure maintenance is intended to be ensured by the Civil Aviation Authority’s requirement to cover its costs through user charges. It has not achieved full cost recovery yet.
More Information:
 Country Assistance Strategy
Millennium Development Goals
Country Website
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