A
Member of Parliament for Manus Island in Papua New Guinea says his
people want the Australian Government to fund about 100 million
Australian dollars worth of projects in return for hosting an asylum
seeker processing centre.
PNG MP Ronnie Knight says Australia's Government has agreed to fund improvements to roads, schools, hospitals and development in the law and order sector.
Mr Knight says details of the deal are still being finalised but that it will cost quite a lot to deliver the improvements.
"The roads do need a lot of work," he told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat.
"And the schools to bring them up to date to world class standard, it is going to be a bit expensive."
PNG MP Ronnie Knight says Australia's Government has agreed to fund improvements to roads, schools, hospitals and development in the law and order sector.
Mr Knight says details of the deal are still being finalised but that it will cost quite a lot to deliver the improvements.
"The roads do need a lot of work," he told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat.
"And the schools to bring them up to date to world class standard, it is going to be a bit expensive."
He said negotiations between the two nations' governments are ongoing and will not be played out in the media.
Landowner concernsAsylum seekers have not been processed on Manus Island since 2004 and the facilities used to house them previously are in disarray.
Australia has sent four C-130 planes carrying defence personnel and heavy machinery to Manus Island to start building the detention centre.
But according to some local media in PNG, landowners are calling on Australia to stop deploying military personnel until locals get guarantees they will be directly involved in the construction of the centre.
"The land owners are trying to sort themselves out to form one umbrella company which will work with the asylum seekers issues," said Mr Knight.
"It is not anything against the Australian government or the Australian army it is just amongst themselves - they have some issues to sort out amongst themselves," he said.
He says the locals want to be more involved in the centre's construction and operation than they were previously when the centre was run by the Howard Government.
"They don't want a repeat of 2001 where no local participation was involved in any way except in menial jobs," he said.
"They want full participation in this project in terms of construction and in terms of using local business."Radio Australia International.
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