By Clifford Faiparik
New Gulf Provincial Police Commander Jeffrey Lemb has urged Gulf people to stop their relaxing attitude and be alert for spin off benefits from Papua LNG project.
The LNG and Oil Projects are kicking off very soon and before you know it, chances of starting a business for yourself will come. There will be a lot of spin off business opportunities that will come by. You surely don’t want to miss them. Wake up from your slumber and position yourself to take a chance at every opportunity. If you have to organise yourselves as associations, business groups or communities, please do so. You don’t want to be left out in your own land. Gulf must be prepared as a landowning community to gain significantly and receive the optimum benefits from benefit sharing agreements for the landowners and the province as a whole”.
Lemb also urged the people especially Papua LNG project land owners not to sell off their resources without understanding the agreement . “No agreements should be rushed or bulldozed for the interest of a greedy and influential few but for the benefit of all. It should benefit the lame and the blind, the disabled and poor and marginalised people in the community. I think we all know what happened to Hela LNG UBS Agreement. And we can also see what is happening in Hela in terms of law and order. We surely don’t want a repetition of that with Gulf or Papua LNG. That is something for the leaders and the people of Gulf to seriously think about. Now is the time to take the lead in nation building. Gulf should proudly take its place as a leader among leaders and show the country what it has to offer in development and progress. Gulf people led the country in nation building in the colonial and formative years of a young country in PNG. Gulf provided the educated elites, trade specialists and labour in the country to set the foundation in the history of PNG. Let us all cooperate to provide a happy, prosperous and enjoyable environment in Gulf for ourselves and those who come to visit.