PNG Housing Minister reveals new money plan

 THE PNG National Housing Corporation’s plan to build 40,000 homes in Port Moresby is going ahead under a new financing arrangement, Housing and Urbanisation Minister Paul Isikiel says.

He said the initial plan was to fund the housing project using a US$500 million from the ICBC Bank of China. But this was changed following a meeting with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill because the country was already under a huge debt pressure.

He said this yesterday when welcoming representatives from financier China State Engineering Corporation (CSEC) and developer Niule No 16.

The new arrangement will be facilitated by the public private partnership arrangement through the build-sell-and share concept.The developer will build on its own strength without any financial obligations to the State. The NHC and NHEL will offer the land at Durand Farm, National Research Institute and others as platform to build on.

“I want to make it clear that this arrangement has nothing to do with an official loan,” Isikiel said.

“This is not a loan. The government has enough stress as it is now and we don’t want to add extra burden by getting loans from abroad.

“There’s no loan facility. The investor will come and build on its own strength.We will recoup this money when we start selling the houses.”

Isikiel said 40,000 houses had been earmarked for construction with the delivery of 5,000 new homes per annum.

He said there would be varying price range