In Papua New Guinea, the National Planning Office has begun a tour of provincial centres to work out strategies aimed at streamlining the operations of various Government departments.
It follows a realisation that departments had developed in an adhoc and unco-ordinated fashion which was handicapping the country's economic growth.
Our correspondent Peter Niesi says the Office has come up with a draft Master Economic Plan and it is taking this to Rabaul from today(fri) and later to Goroka, Madang and then Port Moresby.
He says through a series of workshops they hope to come up with a strategy to strengthen consultation between the departments
"the Somare-Marat Government has come up with the export driven economic recovery strategy, and they have come up with a policy direction, but in so far as actual policy to bring together the different economic sector players such as agriculture, trade and industry, forestry, fisheries, and even the financial institutions - there has been no co-ordinated way that all of these various players can work together. This is vital to ensure that they can begin to fulfil the government's policy direction, and as a result make some dent in PNG's economy"
Peter Niesi
