Foreword By Prime Minister

It is my honor as Prime Minister, to introduce Papua New Guinea’s Medium Term Development Plan IV 2023-2027. The MTDP IV has been framed to incorporate the Government’s development agenda to grow the economy to K200 billion by 2030, double country’s internal revenue, double exports revenue, and create one million new jobs. We will continue to pursue our aspiration to become the “Richest Black Nation” and reach the “middle income” country status by 2023 with a GDP per capita of K14,000.

Over the past 47 years, we have encountered challenges and learnt lessons that are now being used to inform change. The unity of our people, despite being a country of a thousand cultures, remains strong. Our thriving democracy is a firm attestation of our resilience as a people. As we reach our 50 years Golden Jubilee, we will overcome the tyranny of our remoteness by connecting every community through the Connect PNG Program either by roads, sea, air, electricity, telecommunication, satellite, or e-government system. My Government is confident that under the development mantra of “Take Back PNG” we will drive the development of the country for the next 50 years.

As a country we have progressed despite the challenges. However, the dynamics of modern-day geopolitics demand that we transform our economy to remain globally competitive. It is critical that we benchmark our development charter against global standards, or risk being left behind. Districts and provinces will be resourced in this medium term to build their socioeconomic infrastructure and minimum service standards across all sectors. This will reduce the existing disparity in resource allocations and ensure that there is equity in resource distribution for development. We will continue to respect the independence of the institutions of government so that they take responsibility to deliver the services to our people as designed and intended.

I call on all government agencies, development partners, private sector, civil society and faith-based organizations to align and work together to achieve the objectives of this plan. Let us be smart and vigorous in our quest to build a resilient economy. To my fellow parliamentarians, it is incumbent to carry out our duties with ownership, pride and commitment.


Let us work together to Take Back PNG.

God Bless Papua New Guinea

Hon. James Marape

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