THE Morobe Provincial Government and its team of experts met with the National Airports Corporation yesterday in Port Moresby, to openly display their solidarity to combat poverty in the province through local fisheries and agriculture production and distribution through aviation from Nadzab Airport nationwide and overseas.
The partnership is their awareness to drive the provincial government’s initiative of ‘Agriculture and Fisheries through Aviation’ by the triple one policy.
The triple one policy ensures that one person in every household in Morobe should have one kina, per day. This can be achieved through local productions in agriculture and fisheries with direct distribution by air from Morobe nationwide and especially overseas.
To cater for this, the Morobean government is working towards the official renaming of Nadzab airport to “Sir Michael Somare International Airport”. It would cater for international flights into the province and rehabilitation of the airport.
Governor for Morobe, Ginson Saonu asked National Airports Corporation to set up Airport Authority to look after Nadzab and allow the Provincial government to have the old terminal to be upgraded and used as an airport storage facility for fresh products from local farmers.
National Airports Corporation Acting Managing Director, Rex Kiponge said while he applauds the initiative, the National Airports Corporation operates under certain guidelines of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Papua New Guinea.
“There are some things that we are allowed to do, there are some things we are not supposed to do, I was thinking of giving them land to build a facility instead of handing the old terminal,” Mr Kiponge said.
Governor Saonu said the initiative started four years ago but the estimated cost of the entire project cannot be given at this point of time.
An official Memorandum of Understanding will be signed anytime in the coming months to solidify the partnership and points agreed between NAC and Morobe Provincial Government.
Meanwhile, awareness for the “Agriculture and Fisheries through Aviation” project continues and the Morobe Provincial Government team would be visiting the Department of Agriculture and Livestock to do similar awareness.