With its funding now legislated, we asked David Wereh, Secretary of the Department of Work and Highways in Papua New Guinea, what’s next for the ambitious 20-year Connect PNG road-building program.

Highlands region roads. Credit: Asian Development Bank

Papua New Guinea’s under-maintained and incomplete road network has long been considered a brake on the country’s economic development, especially in the populous Highlands region, where the poor state of roads has a negative impact on farmers’ ability to get produce to market.

While PNG had a 20-year program – Connect PNG – to renovate and expand its 30,000 km road network, the 2023 National Budget finally guaranteed its funding for the first time.

‘The Connect PNG (Implementation and Funding) Act 2021 comes into effect this year, which protects the funding going forward,’ says Wereh – the man tasked with implementing Connect PNG. ‘With the law and the Prime Minister and government’s commitment, we’re now seeing improvements in funds.’

‘There’s about one million people here to be reached in PNG. It’s all about leaving no one behind. In the next five years, we want to connect those remote villages that have been left out since Independence.’

From now on, the government will allocate 5.6 per cent of its annual budget toward the program, 50 per cent of which will come from government revenues and 50 per cent from external loans and grants.

‘We have a budget of K20 billion up to 2040, and around K1.6 billion for 2023 alone,’ says Wereh. ‘This is the biggest budget allocation ever,’ he says.

Priorities

In the first phase of the Connect PNG project, up to 2027, about K1.2 billion will be spent each year to bring around 400 km of roads to standard condition.

A key priority will be to ensure around 4300 km of PNG’s priority highways are up to standard.

‘The priority of government is all the way from Vanimo down to the tip of Alotau. That’s the national network that the government is focusing on this first five years,’ says Wereh.

The 700 km Highlands Highway, which services around 70 per cent of PNG’s population, will be part of this: by 2027, all the Highlands Highway, from Lae to Komo, will be brought into good condition. It will also be extended to reach the remote community of Telefomin in Sandaun Province.

Missing links

Connect PNG’s David Wereh.

Another priority will be to build key missing road links in order to complete PNG’s existing road network. This will enable the completion of the Trans Island Highway, providing a sealed road between Port Moresby and Lae for the first time, while also connecting the Highlands to PNG’s Southern region, and completing the coastal highway that links Sandaun, East Sepik and Madang provinces.

Smaller projects will also take place in the Islands region, including on Manus and Bougainville.

‘The PNG Government wants to connect the Highlands and Momase regions into Port Moresby, which is amazing given that we’re pushing holes through green-field areas that resemble wetlands,’ says Wereh.

‘There’s about one million people here to be reached in PNG. It’s all about leaving no one behind. In the next five years, we want to connect those remote villages that have been left out since Independence.’

Over one thousand kilometres of missing links across the island were improved last year, hitting the mark of 35 per cent achievement for the program.

David Wereh, Secretary, Department of Works and Implementation, will provide an update on Connect PNG program on Day 2 of the 2023 Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference in August. Check the program here.

The article ‘Roads program gets boost’ was first published in the 2023 edition of Business Advantage PNG, Papua New Guinea’s premier business magazine. Read the emag here.