Papua New Guinea’s national economic and development strategy, including planning frameworks and relevant institutions.

While government policies and priorities may vary from year to year, there has been a broad political commitment in PNG to pursuing a development framework covering the period up to 2050.

This includes a vision statement and strategies to facilitate the development plan and project initiatives.

Both are overseen by the Department of National Planning and Monitoring and are intended to apply to all state agencies, including government departments, provincial administrations, state-owned enterprises, commodity boards, authorities and universities.

Vision 2050

The PNG Government has instituted a long-term national strategic plan, Vision 2050, with the vision of creating ‘a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society by 2050’.

Vision 2050 maps out PNG’s development initiatives for the forthcoming 30 years, and identifies seven strategic focus areas considered essential to the country’s economic growth and development:

• Human Capital Development, Gender, Youth and People Empowerment
• Wealth Creation
• Institutional Development and Service Delivery
• Security and International Relations
• Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change
• Spiritual, Cultural and Community Development and
• Strategic Planning, Integration and Control.

Papua New Guinea Development Strategic Plan 2010–2030

The Papua New Guinea Development Strategic Plan translates the seven strategic focus areas of Vision 2050 into ‘directions for economic policies, public policies and sector interventions with clear objectives, targets and indicators’.

The plan’s target is for PNG to become a middle income country by 2030.

National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development (StaRS)

After Vision 2050 and the Papua New Guinea Development Strategic Plan 2010–2030 were reviewed, a new National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development (StaRS) was announced in 2014. It too is under the Department of National Planning and Monitoring.

StaRS introduces the concept of sustainable development to PNG’s long-term planning, specifically:

• sustaining and advancing economic growth
• promoting responsible stewardship of the environment
• promotion of social well-being

StaRS provides 21 new guiding principles for PNG’s future development planning. These principles recognise and elevate the national goals and directive principles of PNG’s Constitution and attempt to align the country’s development actions with them.

Medium Term Development Plan, 2018-2022

PNG’s economic direction is dictated by the Medium Term Development Plan 2018-2022. It describes the priorities and actions of the Government using a five-year outlook from 2018, and is aligned with PNG’s five-year electoral cycle.

Replacing the previous MTDP, which ran from 2013 to 2018, the 2018-2022 plan builds on the positive gains and lessons learned from the two previous Medium Term Development Plans: the MTDP I (2011-2015) and the bridging MTDP II (2016-2017).

The strategic development priorities were crafted in the Alotau Accord II.

The five major priorities are:

• Inclusive Economic Growth;
• Continuing with Infrastructure development;
• Improvement of the quality of health care;
• Improvement of the quality of education and skills development; and
• Improvement of law and order.

The key objectives of the MTDP III are:

1. Increase the internal revenue on a sustainable basis to secure sufficient resources from domestic tax collections, non-tax revenues and export earnings;
2. Increase training, capacity and employment opportunities for PNG citizens;
3. Increase PNG ownership and benefits in the formal business sector;
4. Improve quality of service delivery in rural districts across the country;
5. Create a safe and competitive environment to attract foreign and domestic
6. investments;
7. Support provinces and districts to generate sustainable internal revenue;
8. Manage population growth at a sustainable level and promote family
9. planning; and
10. Improve evidence-based planning process.