The 2003 Papua New Guinea budget is to be presented later this afternoon, with prime minister, Sir Michael Somare signalling the government will spend nearly 54-million US dollars over the next four years to fix the Highlands Highway.
The highway repairs will be supervised by a National Roads Authority, which would have 10 board members - with six including the chairman coming from private sector interest groups and four from relevant government bodies.
Sir Michael says the authority will be assisted by Asian Development Bank funding and he says it will expanded and take over other tasks as its capacity develops.
The repairs will involve the World Bank, ADB, AusAID and the government's tax credit scheme with mining companies like Porgera Joint Venture and Chevron.
Sir Michael says the return on investment of rehabilitating the Highlands Highway will be in the vicinity of 40 percent.
