Malabag happy with Aust help

By MELANIE VARI

THE Minister for Health Michael Malabag is quite pleased with the Australian Government support to the health sector as per its announcement  to inject K20 million for tuberculosis control and health infrastructural development in Western Province.
 

“The meeting was fantastic, I’m quite happy with the announcement of the K20 million for the Western Province TB Control issue and they’ll be looking at the rehabilitation of the wards at Daru Hospital,” he said.
 

Health being a key area for Australian aid support, Minister Malabag was present for the duration of the 21st Papua New Guinea-Australia Ministerial Forum held at Gateway Hotel, Port Moresby, and told the Post-Courier that other initiatives into which the Australians had pumped money included the clinic at Mabudawana and other projects in the South Fly and Middle Fly regions.
 

According to the communiqué signed by the PNG Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato and his counterpart Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Bob Carr, the forum welcomed the outcomes of a recent Torres Strait Joint Advisory Council (JAC) meeting held in Cairns and joint work in support of health, including TB and other initiatives in PNG’s Western Province, and acknowledged the strategic importance of the Torres Strait region to both nations.
 

Another major achievement welcomed by the forum would be PNG’s subsequent “transition to an Independent Health Procurement Authority by January 2015 with support from Australia through delegated procurement arrangement in the interim”. Mr Malabag said that his department would tie in the Australian support with the PNG National Health Plan including the establishment of the Independent Procurement Authority but it would come in much later.