Photo Credit: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Patrick Nisira, the Vice President of Bougainville, claimed that the province is economically sustainable enough to become an independent sovereign state.
Nisira remarked this during the House of Representatives June session in Buka. He said that there have been complaints that the autonomous region must first achieve fiscal self-sufficiency by producing adequate income before pursuing political independence.
However, according to Nisira, this has not been the case for many newly independent countries, including Papua New Guinea.
He told Parliament that as Minister of Commerce, Trade and Economic Development, he has created the Low Hanging Fruit economic strategy, which would be presented to the Bougainville Executive Council for approval before being executed to increase income generation in the area.
According to Nisira, the government will disclose first commercial initiatives worth 19 million US dollars, or about K68 million, early next year, as well as economic investments of 100 million US dollars, or about K400 million, that would generate up to 2000 jobs in the economy.
''Where do we draw our confidence from? When you look around, Bougainville has a lot of natural resources and we will have to manage them and run our own government.
We have the Panguna Mine, and at one-time Panguna mine bankrolled the Independence of PNG in 1975, and that same Panguna mine will bankroll the Independence of Bougainville,'' said the Vice President.
Prior to Bougainville's political independence, the Vice President dismissed the individual's worries about economic independence.
Reference:
PNG Facts (18 June 2021). “Bougainville Economically Viable for Independence, says ABG Vice President”.
