The Japan Development Institute (JDI) team of experts and local consultants visited East Sepik Province on Friday last week, led by Minister for International Trade and Investment. East Sepik Province is one of the 18 potential Special Economic Zone (SEZ) locations identified by the government. The province holds one of the largest records in producing leading cash crops in the country with Yangoru-Saussia District being the leading cocoa producing district in the country.
The team of experts were given a helicopter tour of the province starting at Wewak, over Turubu oil palm project, all the way to the Sepik River and across the Sepik Plains. The team also visited the Yangoru Mobile Barracks which will be completed next year. Minister Maru said that the purpose of building the barracks was to secure all the investments and investors in the proposed Sepik Plains SEZ in the Province.
“East Sepik Province is one of the provinces identified by the government as a potential SEZ location and Yangoru-Saussia District has the advantage to benefit from it as it is located in the heart of the province and has two stretches of state land available in the Sepik Plains- Urimo (15, 000 hectares) and Huaripmo (9, 000 hectares). We are looking at oil palm, cattle and cocoa projects, including the two new crops that we want to introduce which are kava and coconut,” said Minister Maru.
“By early next year, once we complete sealing the road at Huaripmo and build a mini police station there, Prime Minister James Marape will visit the district to officially open those projects and at the same time he will launch the project to build the biggest dairy farm in the country at Huaripmo. We are also looking at establishing a chocolate factory at a site that we have identified along the highway at Baimuru. We will talk to the landowners there and hopefully they would agree to give the land to have the factory established. We want the factory to be located on the highway so we can buy cocoa from the neighboring districts for processing. Yangoru-Saussia is the biggest cocoa growing district of Papua New Guinea so the chocolate factories have to be located there,” said Minister Maru.
“While preparing for these big projects ahead, we first have to secure the place with law and order and that is why we are building the mobile barracks. There will be 45 men and women living here and they will not be ordinary police but a special unit; their job will be to secure all the investors and the investments,” Minister Maru said.
The building of houses at the mobile barracks is nearing completion and contractors who will work on the drainage systems and sealing of the road are expected to start work in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the team of experts visited the Sepik Fresh Farm at Huaripmo where they were a tour of the farm by the staff before returning to Wewak and ending their visit to the province at Mengar where a proposed international wharf is to be built.
