In the post-APEC scramble to lavish funds on PNG, here’s what the country really needs

If foreign powers really want to make a difference to PNG, one of the poorest nations in the Pacific, then funding telecommunications and solar power kits would be widely welcomed, alongside schemes to use mobile phones to transfer money.

Mobile money creates opportunities in PNG

PNG is a place of great complexity, with a development landscape littered with failed efforts. The potential for mobile money is often expressed in terms of financial inclusion, but there is also potential to improve development and governance.

Resources curse PNG communities’ future

Two recent reports on the massive ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG project have brought renewed attention to the undesirable economic and social impacts of Papua New Guinea’s largest-ever resource extraction enterprise.

PNG to push out Facebook, taking a sharp turn into cyber censorship

PNG’s Communications Minister Sam Basil, a regular Facebook user himself, has announced that PNG will shut down the social media site for a month so that his department can research how the network is being used. Whether or not it actually happens, the announcement bodes ill for the nation.

PNG picks itself up after the earthquake

Anton Lutz, an American missionary in Mougulu, offers an eye witness account of recovery and aid efforts on the border of Western Province and Hela, the epicentre of the PNG earthquake in February.

The political aftershocks of PNG’s earthquake need careful handling

The earthquake in Papua New Guinea on 26 February killed over 100 people and left 270,000 needing humanitarian help. The social aftermath is now undermining the affected areas’ LNG project, responsible for 40% of PNG’s exports.