Major Impediments to the Development of Papua New Guinea. Non-Communicable Diseases (Lifestyle Disease), High Illiteracy Rate, Corruption and Landowner Compensation (Conflict)

Book excerpt: Scientific Study from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Case Scenarios, , language: English, abstract: This paper discusses some of the major impediments that are affecting the development of this country, Papua New Guinea and off course the general picture of the world. These impediments are identified as Lifestyle or Non Communicable Diseases, Corruption, High Illiteracy rate and Landowner issues especially land conflict and land compensation for mining. I see the following as major impediments to the development of this nation; however people have different views, but I see these things are becoming barriers to the development of this nation. Due to modernisation and westernisation, a lot of people in Papua New Guinea have already adopted western lifestyle. Thus, Non- Communicable Disease is prevalent in PNG. Non- Communicable Diseases are normally found in developed countries but now it is found in PNG. The first case was reported in 1971 but now it’s rose up to almost 46% of the total death rates in PNG is NCD. The survey shows that it is affecting most working class people who have direct correlation in term of input in the development of PNG through human resource development and economic development. Secondly, corruption can also be regarded as one of the impediments to development in PNG because a lot of public funds have been misused at the political and bureaucratic level. We will explore the details in the discourse of this paper. Thirdly, high illiteracy rate is another contributing factor hindering the progress of development in Papua New Guinea. Finally, but not the least is land owner conflict and land compensations, it is also seen as an obstacle to the development of this nation of Papua New Guinea. Especially customary land acquisitions and landownership conflicts in mining areas. For example, Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) has been closed down due to landowner compensations, as a result government infrastructures have been destroyed and lives have been claimed. This paper also provides some strategies and recommendations to address the following issues highlighted above. Especially recommending the government of the day to look into these issues through policy development and legislative framework. Further research is encouraged for the decision makers or policy makers to have sufficient information available to make informed decisions to address those issues before it’s too late.