The Secretary for the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Koney Samuel, said the European Union is one of Papua New Guinea’s traditional development partners.
During a bilateral meeting between the European Commission HQ and officers from the National Planning Department recently (Tuesday, February 2) discussions centered around ongoing cooperation with the European Union to identify areas of intervention and investment in development cooperation.
The meeting also discussed how best Department of National Planning and Monitoring can be integrated under the arrangement of the Multi-annual Indicative Program (MIP) 2021 – 2027.
Secretary Samuel thanked the EU for the good number of key sector interventions through the years and recently the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) in particular the STREIT PNG (K365 million, WASH Part 1 (K123m) and WASH Part 2 (K40m).
He said going forward the DNPM would like to work closely with the European Union on biodiversity and climate change to ensure that the program has targeted interventions and that the impact of the program is felt by the people.
The Secretary emphasized that all development partner interventions must align with the Government’s development priorities. This was reiterated by Myriam Ferran, Deputy Director General, she explained the changes made to the EU development cooperation policy adding that both parties have moved from a more donor recipient relationship to real partnership.
Secretary Samuel said going forward, Vision 2050 remains the country’s road map and the goals cannot be achieved without the valuable support of PNG’s Development partners.