MARU DETERMINED TO TAKE YANGORU-SAUSSIA TO NEXT LEVEL 

By MICHELLE AUAMOROMORO 

HONORABLE Richard Maru said this morning that he was determined to deliver a development package to his people of Yangoru-Saussia in East Sepik that would take the district to next level in the next five years. 

“Taking the district to the next level includes connecting electricity to a lot more villages than we have currently, increasing number of houses that are going to be given roofing so we can have more permanent homes in our district, providing more cocoa seedlings to the farmers, building one more high school to make a total of eight junior high schools, completing phase two of Yangoru-Saussia School of Excellence, and solving the electricity problem by buying our own generators and having a standalone mini-grid so Yangoru-Saussia can provide power to itself instead of depending on power from Wewak,” he said. 

Maru, who will be serving his third term as the Yangoru-Saussia MP said he was also looking to attract large scale multi-billion investors to invest in agriculture within the district. 

“This is important for us because we are the only district in East Sepik that has significant state lands in the Sepik Plains. 

“We are working to find investors to come in and invest especially in oil palm, cattle, dairy farming, rice and other investment opportunities in the vast Sepik Plains of our district,” he said. 

“Our people are keen on a new chocolate factory or cocoa processing plant so we can increase the price of cocoa to the wet bean farmers, and we’re also working to build a vanilla processing plant in our district so we can increase the price of vanilla beans to our farmers who really don’t have a good market,” he added. 

Maru said he was also determined to increase business opportunities for the people of Yangoru-Saussia, and that his focus on education and health would continue. 

Meanwhile, the new Yangoru-Saussia District Development Authority Board was sworn in this morning with their very first meeting held later this afternoon. 

“We are getting to work with the swearing in of our Board today, and we are going to prioritize all our projects and programs and get on with the work to get to that next level,” said Maru. 

“We have exciting plans going on that would depend on good leadership and clearly God’s help to our district,” he added.