Ioro Community Government empowered with new Community Hall
Ioro 2 Community Government witnessed the opening of its new Community Hall this week in Panguna District, Central Bougainville.
The Community Hall is one of 19 such infrastructure that have been built throughout Bougainville through the Australian-government funded Bougainville Partnership program on Bougainville.
Minister for Community Government and Member for Ioro Constituency Hon. Theonila Matbob thanked the Australian government for the continued support provided and for the completion of such a facility in her constituency.
“I thank the government of Australia and tax payers for making it possible for Ioro to have a place to hosts meetings, instead of having to go far to Port Moresby, or Tunuru or Arawa, a place for the people in the pit to come and share their story, or talk about what the future would look like – that is why I thank the tax payers of Australia and with your presence here on behalf of the state government of Australia, I am truly humbled in front of my two thousand people of Ioro that live in the forgotten pockets of the constituency ” she said.
Minister Matbob said it was her political dream to provide service and opportunity for people in Ioro 2 which has been hidden from receiving basic services from the government for too long.
“Although they are part of Panguna – where all interests of the government and international community is, these people of Ioro have not been included in discussions of the many developments that have taken place and as such we have decided to set up the community hall here to give them an opportunity to participate,” she said.
Minister Matbob stressed that from the constituency they anticipate the location of this community hall to be a wealth creation hub of the constituency in which the people in the constituency can come to sell their products, an opportunity for services to reach people that live behind the mine with limited access to services.
Australian High Commissioner to PNG His Excellency John Feakes who was present to witness the opening said he was pleased to be part of the celebration and acknowledged the contractors for getting the job done.
“The halls provide community meeting spaces to support Community Governments and their wards, including elected men and women to work together to meet their community development needs,” he said.
Mr Feakes added that such projects have created significant employment for Bougainville building contractors and six local contractors across Bougainville have shared over K10million in construction contracts.
He acknowledged local building contractor AgroTech Construction who was awarded the contract for doing a fine job in completing the new community hall, adding that he was delighted to see a high-quality building as well as the excellent supervision.
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