A state team recently conducted a pre-Community Development Agreement (CDA) awareness program in Lae, involving parties to the Wafi Golpu mining project CDA.
The parties are Yanta, Hengambu, Babuaf, Wampar, Butibam, Wagang, Morobe Provincial Government and host Local Level Governments.
The consultation program was aimed at educating the parties who are landowners, impacted communities and stakeholders of the project, on the various benefit streams that will be available to them and how the CDA process will go.
The benefit streams include royalties, equity, Business Development Grants, Infrastructure Development Grants and Tax Credit Schemes amongst others.
The state team explained the various laws, policies and processes, governing the distribution of benefits, and who the beneficiaries of the CDA are going to be.
The highlights of the team's presentations were the explanation on what CDA is and its processes, equity break- ups and business spin -off opportunities that will be available to the landowners and stakeholders.
The landowners and stakeholders asked questions regarding the different agendas that were presented by the State Team, which the team explained.
John Nema, President of Hengambu Landowners Association, thanked the state team for sharing vital information on benefits. Hengambu is one of the three Special Mining Lease (SML) 10 landowner groups, that will benefit from Wafi Golpu Project. The other two are Yanta and Babuaf.
Mr Nema said his group wanted the project to commence immediately. However, he said they needed more information to prepare well for the CDA proper.
He said: “Our people fully support the project. We are willing to sacrifice our land and move this project forward,” said Mr Nema. He urged all landowner groups and stakeholders to cooperate with the state team inspite of their differences in opinions, so that the CDA could be signed in a timely manner.
The State Team said they were going to share more information and that this was the first of more meetings to come. Officer-In-Charge (OIC) of the Mineral Resources Authority’s (MRA) Development Coordination Division (DCD), Jerry Naime, said the state team would put together a road-map going forward for all parties to follow, with the focus to successfully completing the CDA.
The State Team was led by the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council (PM & NEC). Other departments represented were the Office of the State Solicitor, Mineral Policy & Geohazards Management (DMPGM), Commerce & Industry, Treasury and the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA).
