The Papua New Guinea Government has announced it will spend 16-million US dollars on rural development next year.
The Post Courier reports that Treasurer Bart Philemon has pre-committed the money to be spent on a District Services Improvement Program kicking off on January 1.
This program is additional to the five-year District Treasury Roll-out Program which started this year and has a budget of 8-million dollars.
Mr Philemon says the 16-million will come from savings made by the Government on foreign debts.
He says any future savings on foreign debts would be sent directly to rural areas.
Mr Philemon says the savings will not belong to Waigani or Lae and as long as he is minister the money will go straight to the rural areas.
He says it has to go back to 85 per cent of the population.
