A new report by the National Reseach Institute in Papua New Guinea says while PNG is resource rich, it has not done well with many social indicators and people are not benefitting from the country's wealth.
A senior research fellow, Dr Alphonse Gelu, says political instability with a history of governments only being in power for about two years has led to a lack of development planning and implementation by politicians.
He says the report's release deliberately coincides with this week's Independence Day and covers development performance in PNG spanning 33 years from 1975 to 2008.
Dr Gelu says he hopes those in power will pay some attention to the latest revelations.
"We have very important reports like this with the statistics in plain language showing what has happened in Papua New Guinea but one of the problems we have is that politicians have very little time for such very very important reports."
Dr Gelu says government budgets need to prioritise money for long term improvements in people's health and education.
