Contact:
In Washington: Mohamad Al-Arief (202) 458-5964 malarief@worldbank.org In Port Moresby: Dody Doiwa (675) 321-7111 ddoiwa@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, December 18, 2007 - The World Bank Board has approved a new, four-year Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Papua New Guinea (PNG). It has also today approved a US$27.5 million credit from the Bank’s concessional lending arm, the International Development Association (IDA), for a Smallholder Agriculture Development Project (SADP) that aims to enhance agricultural incomes in a number of communities in West New Britain and Oro provinces. The PNG CAS. The FY2008-11 Country Assistance Strategy, the overarching goal of which is to help reduce poverty in PNG, is envisaged as the first in a series of Bank Group strategies covering the next 15 to 20 years---and is thus conceived of as the beginning of a new Bank Group partnership with PNG. The strategy is based on two main pillars: supporting the sound and transparent management of the country’s natural resources and resource revenues; and addressing the needs of the poor by creating economic opportunities and improving the delivery of basic services. World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea Nigel Roberts said that this new strategy represented an important step forward in the World Bank Group’s engagement with the Government and people of PNG. “The CAS represents a major scaling-up of the Bank Group’s efforts in PNG,” Mr. Roberts said. “After a period of crisis in the 1990s, the economy has been stabilized and the country is experiencing a natural resource revenue boom. If used well, these revenues can create jobs, services and growth. By bringing to PNG the lessons of international governance experience and of sound approaches to economic management in resource-rich countries, we hope to contribute to a new, more optimistic chapter in the country’s history”. This is the Bank Group’s first full CAS for PNG since 1999 and is the first to be prepared jointly with the Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The CAS is closely aligned with PNG’s own Medium-Term Development Strategy 2005-10. SADP. World Bank Country Manager for PNG Benson Ateng described the Smallholder Agriculture Development Project as a core element of the new Country Strategy, through its support for poverty alleviation in two oil palm growing provinces. The project aims to increase the revenues of oil palm farmers through a community-based approach to agricultural development. “This innovative project will test approaches for involving local governments in the delivery of important economic services” Mr. Ateng said. Christian Delvoie, the World Bank’s Director for Sustainable Development, East Asia Pacific Region, added that lessons from this initiative will then feed back into the design of other such activities under the new country assistance strategy. -###- For more information about the World Bank in Papua New Guinea, please visit: www.worldbank.org/pg |
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