The PNG National Procurement Commission (NPC) has signed contracts of employment for coordinators and managers of the World Bank funded PNG Agriculture Commercialization and Diversification (PACD) project in Port Moresby on September 9 2022.

NPC Board Chairman Kenneth Thompson officiated the signing ceremony on behalf of the Government of Papua New Guinea. The employment contracts were signed between the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) and three senior officials who will be leading the management and implementation of PACD over the five-year timeframe. The project officials were DAL-PACD Project Coordination Unit Coordinator Jethro Apinas, Coffee Component Project Manager Potaisa Hombunaka and Cocoa Component Coordinator Martin Powell.

The occasion was witnessed by DAL Deputy Secretary (Policy and Planning) Francis Daink. DAL will be the lead coordination agency of this massive US $40 million (PGK145 million) investment in the agriculture sector.

From left: Jethro Apinas, Project Coordinator, DAL PACD Project Coordination Unit; Kenneth Thompson, Board Chairman, National Procurement Commission; Steven Pup, Board Member, National Procurement Commission; Martin Powell, Productive Partnership Coordinator, Cocoa Project Management Unit, Cocoa Board of PNG; Francis Daink, Deputy Secretary Policy and Planning, DAL; Potaisa Hombunaka, Coffee Project Manager, Coffee Industry Corporation; and Richard Kuna, Board Director, National Procurement Commission.

PACD aims to support the growth and diversification of PNG’s agriculture sector, particularly in rural areas where more than 80 percent of the country’s population live. The project has been designed to build on the success of the earlier World Bank funded Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (PPAP), which has seen more than 68,000 coffee and cocoa growers across PNG improve their yields and incomes from two of PNG’s most important crops.

The new PACD agriculture project will help consolidate the work of PPAP and address critical roadblocks to the growth of PNG’s under-performing agriculture sector, which is constrained by high transaction costs, lack of access to markets and poor rural infrastructure. The project will support micro, small and medium enterprises to commercialize and expand further into emerging agricultural opportunities, including coconut products, small livestock and spices in addition to coffee and cocoa.

Thompson stressed that the Marape/Rosso Government is focused on harnessing the potential of agriculture to grow the economy in order to take back PNG. He commended World Bank for financing the project and thanked DAL for the leadership to coordinate and implement the project. He pointed out that the process to screen the many applicants for this project was not easy.

“You are fortunate among many to have been selected and awarded the contracts to lead the respective project components based on your past project management experiences; hence I wish you all a great success in this phase of the World Bank funded PACD project,” said Thompson.