The Councillor of Wutung Village, the border village of Sandaun Province and Chairman of the landowner company of the proposed Papua New Guinea (PNG) Trade Centre in Wutung village have reached an agreement with the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru and the Sandaun Provincial Government and Administration to provide land for the establishment of the Trade Centre.
The agreement reached during the recent trip of Minister Maru and the Japan Development Institute (JDI) Expert Team to visit Vanimo are as follows:
The land identified for the Trade Centre at Wutung Village will not be sold to the government but only leased long term to the National Government.
All business spin off for the Trade Centre like security, cleaning, etc will be given to the landowner company.
The National Government will fund the cost of building a new bore water supply system for the proposed Trade Centre and the border post at Wutung. The same water supply system must also provide a continuous and free water supply system to Wutung Village.
Currently, there is no electricity and water supply at the border post, resulting in all the scanning machines including the truck which has the scanning machines has not been used since 2018.
“They are all gathering dust, including the office complex as there is no water. The whole border post is in a despicable state and we must act now to fix all these shambles if we are serious to trade with Indonesia,” said Minister Maru.
“I have asked the Sandaun Governor and his administration to meet the cost of connecting electricity from Vanimo to Wutung as a matter of priority at the cost of the Sandaun Provincial Government while the National Government will take care of funding the water supply system and lease the land from the Wutung landowners for the Trade Centre. We cannot continue the one-way trade of our people going to Batas in Indonesia to buy Indonesian goods. The time has come for us to get our act together and build the Trade Centre at Wutung. This has to be a shared responsibility between the National Government, Sandaun Provincial Government and the Vanimo District DDA,” Minister Maru said.
