Allow me, on
behalf of the Government of Papua New Guinea, to
congratulate Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election as President
of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session.
Papua New Guinea supports his leadership as we work
with him on the ambitious theme of “Delivering on and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda”. I also take this opportunity to pay tribute
to Ambassador John Ashe for his strong leadership
in setting the stage for enhancing the sustainable
development agenda of Member States, especially
of small island developing States (SIDS). We also
commend the Secretary-General for his leadership and
untiring commitment to advancing the cause of global
peace and security to enhance the multidimensional
global development agenda.
It has been a long and sometimes hard road for the
people of Fiji over the past eight years. We therefore
warmly congratulate the people of Fiji for their return
to constitutional and democratic rule following their
general elections this year. We welcome the return of
Fiji to the Commonwealth and to the Pacific Islands
Forum. In wishing the people of Fiji well, Papua New
Guinea will continue to stand ready to assist them, as
it has done in the past, along with other major Pacific
partners, in areas where such assistance can be effective
as Fiji embarks on its new path forward.
The recent third International Conference on Small
Island Developing States, held in Samoa, was a great
success. We commend the adoption of the Small Island
Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action/
Samoa Pathway, which reiterated the sustainable
development priorities of SIDS, which has been
affirmed by the international community.
But the impacts of climate change continue to pose
a serious challenge to the sustainable development
of SIDS. The full range of damaging events — such
as rising sea levels, coastal erosion, salinization of
the fresh water table, prolonged and severe droughts,
flooding and other extreme weather and loss of and
damage to vital infrastructure — remains a constant
concern for SIDS. Many SIDS, especially in the Pacific,
have reached a tipping point. While the right thing for
us to do is to respond to the challenges by working
smarter and harder to improve the livelihoods of people
at risk, the bigger and advanced countries of the world
must not only do likewise; they must also redouble their
efforts in partnering with us.
As part of our support to Pacific SIDS, Papua
New Guinea has launched the Pacific Development
Assistance Programme, which is aimed at assisting
Pacific SIDS in critical areas of development such as
education, health, capacity-building, climate change
and the reconstruction of important infrastructure
after natural disasters. We reiterate our call on the
international community, including the United Nations,
to work together with SIDS in the spirit of genuine and
durable partnership.
We commend the Secretary-General for convening
the successful Climate Summit last week. In
supporting the outcomes, we must build on the political
momentum generated as we move towards Lima this
year and, importantly, towards Paris in 2015, where
the international community must conclude a legally
binding agreement in order for us to collectively
address the adverse impacts of climate change.
The international community stands at an
important crossroads. The imminent deadline of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the
transition to the post-2015 development agenda have
rightly become the centre stage of the global agenda.
We support a people-centered and transformative
post-2015 development agenda underpinned by global
partnerships that support national ownership of
sustainable development.
We welcome the adoption by the General Assembly,
by resolution 68/309, of the report of the Open Working
Group on Sustainable Development Goals (A/68/970),
which recommended 17 goals. We must chart a realistic
path, with goals that are attainable given the necessary
means of implementation. We also commend the work
of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on
Sustainable Development Financing, which is critical
to the successful implementation of the post-2015
development agenda.
In that respect, the Pacific island developing States
note with appreciation the inclusion of the important
proposed stand-alone goals on oceans and seas,
sustainable energy and climate change. Along with
the other proposed goals, those goals should form the
basis for the intergovernmental negotiations that are to
take place. Papua New Guinea will participate in those
negotiations.
My Government remains fully committed to those
efforts because we have experienced the galvanizing
impact of the MDGs, which has helped us take national
ownership and develop a home-grown sustainable
development paradigm. While my country’s MDG
scorecard remains a work in progress, my Government
has undertaken various initiatives to redress the
situation. We have retailored the MDGs to our national
priorities, with 88 indicators connecting them to our
national development plans.
A recent report by the United Nations country
office on progress to achieve the MDGs was optimistic
and positive. The report found that Papua New Guinea
had made important strides towards achieving the
MDGs, especially since the general elections in 2012.
They include the bold decision to run budget deficits
until 2017, which, the report notes, has enabled the
nation to invest in essential areas.
My Government is implementing a policy of free
education for all primary-school children, resulting
in an increase in school enrolments by as much as
80 per cent in some areas. We now have around
2 million children in schools. In the health sector,
we are witnessing a reduction of rates in early child
and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
communicable diseases. More mothers and children
are getting access to health care as a result of our free
health-care policy. Our infrastructure development
programme is improving Papua New Guinea’s business
environment and creating opportunities for our people
to participate meaningfully in national development.
A key cornerstone of our development road map
is a people-centred focus on population management
and stabilization. It entails empowering individuals to
take leadership and full responsibility to improve their
livelihoods through appropriate measures. Our economy
has grown over the last decade at an average rate of 6 to
8 per cent per annum, and is projected to reach 20 per
cent in 2015. That growth is transforming our country,
especially with revenue from the completion of our first
liquefied natural gas project and its exports.
This is a new economic and development age for
our economy. The unprecedented and transformative
economic progress will coincide with the pursuit of
the post-2015 development agenda. We are clearly
focused on actively participating in the process and in
its implementation at the national and regional levels.
Our Government is fully committed to ensuring that we
manage the transformation carefully and effectively.
Our challenge is to ensure that the growth delivers the
maximum benefit to our citizens.
Recently, our Government launched a $100 million
initiative with our leading national bank, the Bank of
the South Pacific, to make home loans more affordable
for our citizens. We are also facilitating financial
inclusion services for our people. We are grateful to our
development partners, including the United Nations,
Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, China
and the European Union. My Government has helped
with the capital for the first national women’s bank and
for microcredit schemes to help our people at the grass-
roots level become owners and drivers of their future
well-being. In addition, we are giving priority to small
and medium enterprises to drive national development.
Furthermore, my Government is developing a
national statistics development strategy to provide a road
map for Papua New Guinea to continually improve and
update the collection and management of its statistical
information in order to improve decision-making.
That includes embarking on a national biometric
identification card system to record and maintain the
population information of our citizens.
Despite our economic growth, social issues remain
a challenge. My Government values our women and
girls, who constitute half of our population, as equal
development partners. We are making sure that gender
empowerment and equality continue to be a cornerstone
of our responsible sustainable development. We
therefore support the work of UN-Women.
I am pleased to inform the Assembly that my
Government has committed record funding of
$10 million this year for various initiatives, including
partnering with the United Nations Population Fund
to make available 40,000 contraceptive implants as
important intervention measures for the health of our
women and girls of child-bearing age. That will be
scaled up to $20 million by 2015. My Government,
in partnership with our development partners, is also
investing in upgrading vital midwifery skills, along
with enhancing our health referral systems to address
complicated pregnancies. As a member of the Executive
Board of UNICEF, we will promote and participate in
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
My Government welcomes and pledges our support
for the President’s timely agenda for strengthening
international peace and security. As a responsible
Member of the United Nations, we are committed
to fostering global peace and security. As such, my
country is deploying a modest level of troops to the
United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Sudan
and South Sudan. As our capacity grows, we intend to
contribute more.
We are concerned about the increasing conflicts
and tensions in many parts of the world, particularly
those involving non-State actors. An unacceptable
heavy toll of destruction is exacted upon millions of
innocent children, women and men, often uprooted
from their homes, dislocated and downtrodden and
their dignity humiliated. We must rebuke and unite
against the rising tide of intolerance, bigotry and hatred
under various banners.
We again condemn terrorism in all its
manifestations. We join the international community
to combat that global threat. Our support for Security
Council resolution 2178 (2014) against terrorism, which
was recently adopted, is a reaffirmation that inhuman
atrocities committed cannot and should not be condoned
by the international community. Those responsible for
such inhuman atrocities must be held accountable.
We are also concerned by the rising tensions
between and within certain countries and the
re-emergence of the ugly head of another potential
arms race. The world does not need that; rather, we
must recommit our efforts for global disarmament that
supports a transformative development agenda that
brings long-lasting improvement in the livelihoods of
people everywhere.
The Ebola crisis is a concern that is not limited just
to West Africa. It is an international crisis, one which
we, the international community, must address together
as we have done with severe acute respiratory syndrome
and HIV/AIDS. Those diseases and pandemics do
not recognize national sovereign borders. Like other
countries, Papua New Guinea has taken appropriate
measures to address the potential spread of Ebola.
We note with concern that progress in the Third
International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism
has been slow. We need to strengthen efforts to
complete that process. Papua New Guinea urges the
implementation of the report and conclusions of the
United Nations visiting mission to New Caledonia this
year, and thereby calls on the United Nations and the
international community, particularly the administering
Power, to support the process of decolonization under
the Noumea Accord. The Summit of the Melanesian
Spearhead Group in June 2013 supported through
a declaration the efforts of the Front de libération
nationale kanak et socialiste in New Caledonia.
Papua New Guinea strongly believes that the
international community is a better, more secure and
harmonious place because of the United Nations.
Certainly there are areas in the United Nations where
reform is required, as is the case with any large
organization. We need to recommit ourselves to the
areas where the Organization has been successful, and
in other areas we need to build adequate systems. Our
ultimate objective must be to promote a more effective,
more accountable, more responsive and more caring
United Nations — a United Nations capable of meeting
the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Papua New Guinea therefore shares the President’s
intention to further reform, rejuvenate and strengthen
the Security Council to allow for equitable geographic
representation. Regrettably, that important organ does
not reflect today’s geopolitical realities. We again join
many other Member States in calling for the reform of
the Security Council in both categories of membership.
At this time next year we will be celebrating
40 years of nation-building in Papua New Guinea, just
as the United Natons commemorates its seventieth
anniversary. We continue to be a proud, united country
of many diverse cultures and peoples speaking more
than 800 languages. We are also rapidly transforming
our traditional way of life to that of a modern country
in just one generation.
In conclusion, I recommit my country to the ideals
of the Charter of the United Nations and pledge to work
closely with all other Member States to collaborate on
solutions to the many issues we all face as humankind.