Papua New Guinea 'set to implode'
> By Phil Mercer
> BBC News, Sydney
>
> Australia has already begun sending police to PNG
> Papua New Guinea is heading towards economic and social collapse and
> could be overrun by criminals, a new Australian report warns.
>
> The Australian Strategic Policy Institute called for the global
> community to radically increase the amount of aid given to the
> country.
>
> It said Australia should take over some aspects of government.
>
> The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, is heading to
> Papua New Guinea for bilateral meetings.
>
> The report warns that if Papua New Guinea's weaknesses are allowed to
> continue, the country could fall "off a cliff into full-scale state
> failure".
>
> The central government's authority would collapse and criminals would
> dominate the economy, it says.
>
> This gloomy assessment says serious decline is already well under
> way.
>
> 'Bleak economic outlook'
>
> The study found that Papua New Guinea's weak government and policing
> had allowed international crime gangs to relocate from South East
> Asia in recent years.
>
> The report's authors said that as Papua New Guinea's problems got
> worse, the risk of them spreading around the region increased.
>
> They urge Australia to more than double its aid budget and take
> control of PNG's immigration and customs services.
>
> The country has rich supplies of minerals and timber, but the
> economic outlook is extremely bleak for its population of
> five-and-a-half-million people.
>
> The rapid spread of HIV and Aids is putting further pressure on the
> authorities.
>
> Australia has begun sending a total of 210 police officers and more
> than 60 bureaucrats to its troubled neighbour as part of a
> multi-million dollar rescue package.
>
> Mr Downer will hold talks on security with his counterparts in Papua
> New Guinea as part of his annual tour of the South Pacific.
>
> It will include stop-overs in the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and
> New Zealand.
>

typical Australian reports...what did we expect??...
Our currency and Natrual reserves are stable..and other International organisation have acknowledged the archievement...there has been improved invester confidence...but no..they wont report this...
they wanna sell their paper, there for they blow things outta proportion...I don't see anything positive coming out off this kinda reports..it doesn't do much to helping the relationship between Australia and PNG.

the aid doesn't need to double..

it just needs to be carefully watched..

we all know the politians keep dipping their hands into funds for their own personal expenditure..

Hopefully Australia can help get PNG back on track.. And then hoepfully PNG can keep the momentum going and become the country we all want it to be..

10Q

What a horrible statement to make if you expect that we will ever, EVER be able to do anything on our own. We've become beggars, dogs, pigs, following mama Australia. When we can't solve our problem we expect mama to solve the problem for us. To hear a Papua New Guinean, especially one who has some amount of education, looking upwards to Australia like pig following masta, hoping with tearful eyes that masta will get us out of our own messes is tragic. Really tragic. No country ever gets out of its messes with the kind of attitude that they can't solve their own problems but must look to others outside to solve their problems for them.

Somalia has been in that situation, a basketcase for many years now with NO INDICATIONS it will ever be able to crawl out of its hole.

Any solutions or solved problems that the Aussies make in PNG will only last as long as they're in PNG.

If you don't blieve in independence, I suggest you start lobbying for PNG to find some country that can take us on as a colony and exploit us to their heart's content.

Oz get PNG back on WHAT TRACK??
Since independence we've been trying to live up to the 'jones's' and that was our downfall
because only a selected few had brains more advanced than an animal's. Only a VERY FEW had genuine love and care for PNG and its masses. We don't need Australians to tell us how to live....PNG'NS NEED TO BE HONEST WITH THEMSELVES...GET OFF THEIR LAZY BUTTS AND WORK, WORK, WORK... AND STOP KNOCKING THEIR BROTHERS WHO ARE SUCCESSFUL THROUGH HARD WORK AND SACRIFICES....ATTITUDE!!! CHANGE THE ATTITUDE!!! START WITH SELF!! AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR FRIENDS, OUR COUSINS AND THEIR FRIENDS....TO CHANGE ATTITUDE AND WORK!!!! GIVE ME BACK THE 70'S!