NRI Director Yala warns of PNG's economic disaster

The National Research Institute director Dr Charles Yala has warned that the national economy must not see a repetition of the economic disaster of the early 1900s.
Yala said the Government then had spent all its funds in anticipation of the revenue from Kutubu, Misima and Porgera which failed to materialise.
“We never learn from history. We blew up the budget in the early 1990s and created a self-destructive situation,” he said.
“We anticipated that Kutubu, Misim Lihir and Porgera were all to come on stream.
“One of our prime ministers said PNG is an island of gold floating on a sea of oil.
“That bonanza did not deliver. We have always lived on expectation, and those expectation did not materialise. We always drowned ourselves. It is a paradox to me in one sense when our economy is not doing well. We do not seem to get it.
“We failed to do the little things correct.
“We have neglected our agriculture sector, we have neglected fundamental reforms, we have neglected to develop our tourism sector, we have failed to get simple road networks between.
“We do not do the simple things right and continue to wait for bonanza and in my lifetime bonanzas do not seem to be delivering.
“So the challenge for us is to start doing the small things correctly.
“Let us focus to where our strengths are.
“The resource sector should be a blessing but it seems to be a curse.” The National/ONE PNG