Kina Bank and SNS Tech have partnered to deliver market leading results for SMEs in Papua New Guinea looking to turn digital. SNS Tech is a Papua New Guinean owned tech firm who develop best in class digital solutions for their clients so they can thrive in the digital economy. As a business, Kina Bank have long been committed to directing the digital future of PNG and identified e-commerce as a crucial aspect to the long-term success of the country. With a joint vision in bettering digital experiences in PNG, Kina Bank and SNS Tech have joined forces to set local catering company Tapioca Delight up for digital success. Using Kina Bank’s Internet Payment Gateway (IPG), Tapioca Delight can continue to build out their thriving online business. The partnership saw SNS Tech assist in integrating Kina’s IPG on behalf of Tapioca Delight. This meant that Tapioca Delight’s owner, Ginia Sialis, could concentrate on looking after her business whilst SNS Tech took care of the set-up phase. Kina Bank’s Chief Transformation Officer, Ivan Vidovich said, “As the leading digital bank in PNG, we’re always looking for the right partners to work with to ensure we’re supporting local SMEs and helping them become digitally focused. We’ve seen great results already partnering with SNS Tech, Tapioca Delight is just one example of many.” Kina Bank’s IPG platform is the first in PNG to accept local bank cards from, BSP, MiBank and ANZ, meaning customers have the freedom to browse and order what they want all whilst using a standard local bank issued card of their choice. “We feel a sense of accomplishment here at Kina Bank, having taken our Internet Payment Gateway out to commercial customers and having it adopted by PNG born companies like Tapioca Delight. We take tremendous pride in supporting online businesses and we’re confident that providing a secure digital payments platform will help drive PNG’s digital innovation”, said Ivan Vidovich. Tapioca Delight has seen a flurry of new orders come through their website, the first one coming from a customer in New Zealand ordering a cake for her best friend in Port Moresby. Ginia Sialis said, “I couldn’t be happier with the set up and integration to Kina Bank’s IPG. Both SNS Tech and Kina have been great partners and have really helped us in the growth phase of our business. Being a SME in PNG, it is important that I can rely partners like SNS Tech and Kina Bank.” Kina Bank’s Internet Payment Gateway is a tool available to all SMEs looking to turn digital.

This just in! Long-time businessman and former Madang Governor Sir Peter Barter is confirmed to have passed away this morning at the Cairns Hospital in Australia. The Barter family announced the passing of Sir Peter Barter this morning via advise from son Andrew Barter. Sir Peter first came to Papua New Guinea as a pilot in 1967 with the Divine Word Aviation. He has travelled the length and breadth of the Sepik and Madang Province. He later became a prominent businessman and a citizen of the newly independent Papua New Guinea. He was a pioneer in the development of tourism in PNG. Through his business Melanesian Tourist Services, he supported many small communities where his ships the Melanesian Explorer, Melanesian Discover docked. He was a member of parliament for three terms as the Madang Governor. Sir Peter is survived by his wife Lady Janet Barter, son Andrew and grandchildren Jordan and Amaiya. Andrew added the Barter family are overwhelmingly grateful for the condolences messages received near and far and funeral arrangements will be announced in due course.

New Ireland Police is ready to secure election materials including ballot boxes and ballot papers that arrived in Kavieng yesterday (Tuesday 21st of June). A total 52 ballot boxes, 3 electoral roll boxes plus other accessories for the National General Election 2022 were dispatched by C130 of the Australian Defence Force. New Ireland PPC, Chief Inspector Felix Nebanat confirmed that security details for the materials begun with the escort from the Kavieng Airport and will continue at the station now that the materials are stored at the Kavieng Police Station. We have already organized our men into teams with personals who will be manning the location starting right away," Nebanat said. He highlighted that additional manpower from Tomaringa are on the ground to compliment the local police with the securing of the container until polling time when the seals are opened to access the election materials. New Ireland Election Manager, Mr. Benjamin Kliawi revealed that the materials are kept under police protection until before polling begins, where they will be distributed to the polling teams to go into their respective polling areas. Mr. Kliawi also revealed that a training for the gazette Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) will be conducted on Thursday and Friday in preparation for polling on the 4th of July. He also made a call to the Provincial Administrator and the District Administrators to give him ten public servants to conduct scrutiny for the 10 polling stations for the Regional Seat. The counting scrutineers for the Kavieng and Namatanai Open electorates are already confirmed," said Mr. Kliawi.

Coral Sea Hotels & Hospitality is in growth mode, part of this includes changes to the Coral Sea Hotels. Papua New Guineans are familiar with the Coral Sea Hotel offering of ENZO’s Pizza. ENZO’s has traditionally been a feature offering of Coral Sea Hotels, however as the business grows there are changes taking place to accommodate this growth. “The wait is over for the people of Goroka, to get a taste of our renowned pizzas, pies, muffins, soft serve ice cream and great coffees” said recently appointed Country Manager Sudeep Geethanandan for ENZO’s Pizza. “So here we are, welcoming you all to the newly opened Enzo’s Express Takeaway at Bird of Paradise Hotel, in the middle of the Goroka city on Corner of Elizabeth & McWilliam Road, operating Monday to Saturday from 9AM to 5PM. Please visit www.coralseahotels.com or Facebook page “Birds of Paradise Hotel” where you can get details on our latest offering.” added Mr. Geethanandan. “We at ENZO’s are driven by a passion to bring our customers faster, fresher quality pizzas and other food items, which is enabled by our highly engaged and motivated staff who are always ready to WOW our customers.” added Sudeep Geethanandan ENZO’s PIZZA is Papua New Guinea’s pizza of choice with 7 locations across our nation with a lot more in the pipeline.  

Medal tally (Progressive Update inserted below) as of Tuesday June 21st with Team PNG finishing off strongly in the lead.  Another day of competitions today on the track for our Athletics athletes whilst Tennis and Golf continue their competitions. Weightlifting has finished their competitions for the games, and Vaá will be taking the day off to recover before their marathon event on Thursday. Source: Team PNG FB Page

THE District Services Improvement Programme (DSIP) is an overarching financial input for service delivery for the Anglimp South Waghi (ASW) district in Jiwaka province, says District Administrator Joseph Mangro. Mr. Mangro said the SIP program is a strategic rural intervention program aimed at address lacking of development and basic government services targeting rural marginalized communities and villages. “The district strongly believes that the SIP program, if soundly managed and implement, will inevitably address development needs of the rural communities and progressively bring about unprecedented rural economic growth and improve the living standards of its people,” he said. Mangro highlighted this sentiments while presenting their 2018-2021 DSIP acquittal reports to the Department of Implementation & Rural Development (DIRD) in Port Moresby last week. Mr. Mangro said Anglimp South Waghi (ASW) district opted to furnish the outstanding DSIP financial report of more than K40.0 million as part of its compliance stipulated under the Public Finance Management (Act) to report to the national government before the country goes to the national general elections. “We have to clear our books, all financial transactions and reports must be submitted to responsible agencies so we can go to the polls with clean hands and no complaints from our stakeholders,” he said. Mangro said much of these development grants were expedited on impact projects such as infrastructures basically sealing of roads, construction of bridges, health centres, aid posts, construction of double classrooms for primary to secondary schools, rural electrification program to connect every households with the electricity which is in line with the district’s ambition to connect 75% of the people with electricity by 2022, rural water supply, purchased ambulances for health centres, vehicles for education and health sectors. As reflected in the acquittal reports, the district manage to support churches, as 10% of district’s DSIP grants were allocated to different denominations. “Since we live in multi religious society, churches plays a significant role to restore peace and harmony in the community, which they are also public servants in the surrounding community, where we supported them,” he said. Incumbent and local MP Joe Kuli stressed that under his leadership he had made a policy decision to support farming cooperative societies to encourage farmers in the district to venture into farming businesses or commercial agriculture to earn income and improve their social and economic well beings that will create employment opportunities and promote economic growth. Kuli said he will continue to develop many good economic policies and deliver impact projects that his 200,000 plus population will greatly benefit if he is elected for the second term in this 11th National Parliament. “The landmass and huge population supplemented by greed, nepotism, tribalism, lack of vision and a voter-based traditional systems in service delivery at the political helm over the years had prevented the electorate from seeing any tangible developments. Regardless, all bad things has to end now, I have to establish mutual relationships with our people and display a modern leadership styles to ensure basic services are diversified for each of the LLGs where people receive fair distribution of tangible services which they have never seen before,” he said. One of the impact project the district delivered was the K8.0 million bailey bridge constructed across the Waghi river, connecting Mugmamp to Kindeng to the outside World which they have been cut off for a decades. Some notable projects like K7 million electrification that greatly benefited entire population including 500 block holders from different parts of Papua New Guinea residing in ASW. The power projects delivered were Kindeng Rogump (7km), Lupa-Tari market (2.5km), Sanap-Anda (3km), Sanap- Kendu (2km), Kurki-Altai (2km), Aviamp- Aviamp 1(1km), Kami-Kupa (2.5km), Avi (2km), Wurup- 5mile (1.5km), Wurup-Lel(.5km) and Wara Wau-Waghi (1.5km). The district also subsidized school fees for students attending various tertiary institutions around the country and other major sporting programs to curb lawlessness. DIRD who monitors and administer SIP program around the country had reported ASW

Key findings from a recent evaluation of a Parenting for Childhood Development (P4CD) program highlight a reduction in family violence, abuse and neglect of children in communities exposed to this program. The evaluation, generously supported by UNICEF Australia, found that parents exposed to the P4CD program, were empowered to apply positive child rearing parenting practices and invested time to enhance child-parent relationships that helped create safe spaces for children. An estimated 35,000 children aged between 3 and 10 have been positively impacted by this intervention that has reached over 8,700 parents in six provinces in the country since UNICEF PNG, working in partnership with the Government and implementing partners, rolled out the program in 2016. While a scale up of this program is currently supported by the European Union – United Nations Spotlight Initiative to End Violence against Women and Girls in PNG, the evaluation findings has provided needed evidence to further scale up the program across the country, ensuring full ownership of the Government over the program and further improving its content to end violence against children and women as well as help build positive relations within the family. A significant change observed during the evaluation was among fathers who reported strong child-parent relations with 73 per cent of them confirming that they spend more time with their children, playing games with them, and helping them to behave the right way. “These findings are significant as they indicate a change in the mindsets of parents about raising their children in a loving and caring way which is crucial to the holistic development and overall well-being of a child,” said Claudes Kamenga, UNICEF Representative. A large majority of parents who benefited from the program (76 percent) no longer hit their children; 45 percent no longer curse or swear at them; and 63 percent do not engage in neglectful behaviours such as leaving the child alone or letting the child go hungry. Although the P4CD program was not specifically designed to address intimate partner violence, over 58 percent of female spouses reported a reduction in violence inflicted on them by their husbands while 62 percent of females and 71 percent of males confirmed that they talk through their disagreements without using violence. The P4CD program was developed in 2016 by UNICEF PNG with the support of the Menzies School of Health Research at the Darwin University in Australia. UNICEF PNG commissioned the evaluation that was independently carried out by evaluation firm, Stratman. The full evaluation report can be accessed here: Evaluation of the UNICEF P4CD Programme in Papua New Guinea Picture sourced: REDBUBBLE

With two participating schools in NCD, Tokarara Primary School and Ororo Primary School battling out at the blast, Ororo Primary school were too good for Tokarara Primay , claiming both the female and male divisions of the blasts. BSP Corporate Sponsorship Manager Amelia Minnopu commended CPNG for its hard work, commitment and stability in driving the programme’s growth. “The BSP School Kriket Blast is a fun and fast program for kids of all abilities to learn the skills of cricket and play the sport. The program driven by Cricket PNG is focusing on developing the participation of boys and girls in cricket whilst developing young talents for the sport. We encourage more schools to participate,” she added. The BSP School cricket blasts is actively participated in all Cricket PNG Centres that is NCD, Central, Oro, Milne Bay, Morobe, Madang, Western Highland Province, Eastern Highlands Province, Jiwaka, Southern Highlands, and West New Britain. With over 50 Schools nationwide and over thousands of students taking part. The program has reached over 200,000 participants from Elementary and Primary schools in PNG.

The University of Technology (UOT) has expressed gratitude to the National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) for providing an incredible opportunity in engaging its Communication & Development Studies final-year students for their industrial on-the-job training. The University’s Vice Chancellor Dr. Ora Renagi thanked the NGCB for heightening its Job-Training through a 5-year MOU signing between the two institutions to prepare graduates to deliver quality output and add value in the industrial workforce. “The UOT aims to build capacities that empower and promote technological skills, enhance quality education and add good principles and values to the graduates for them to employ in the workforce,” Dr Renagi said. “At the same time, we would like to strengthen relationships with our industrial partners especially the NGCB for engaging our student-trainees to conduct their practicum and we look forward to maintaining this good partnership.” NGCB Chief Executive Officer Imelda Agon, who is a champion in human resource development & training capacity in the industrial sector, maintained NGCB’s position as a fast-developing organization aiming to provide quality work deliveries that are of high standards. “We at NGCB strive to provide quality, effective and excellent work ethics and at the same time promote gender equality and good values in serving the organization, the gaming industry and the people of this beautiful country,” Ms Agon said. “The NGCB is also a keen supporter of human resource development and capacity building thus we continue to enhance partnerships with education institutions to nurture career development and build young minds to be great leaders for the country.” “We are also excited to continue our partnership with the University of Technology in engaging final-year students under the 5-year MOU to undergo industrial training and I commend both parties for effectively implementing this work placement program.” Since the MOU was signed between UOT and NGCB to establish training program in 2020, more than fifteen students have undergone industrial training experience with the NGCB.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks centre Siosifa Talakai were today named to make their debuts for the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues in Game Two of the Ampol State of Origin series at Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday 26 June. Burton will start in the centres while Talakai has been named on the bench. Other changes from the team which lost the opening game in Sydney include Stephen Crichton being named at centre; Apisai Koroisau at hooker; Jake Trbojevic in the front row; and Cameron Murray in the second row. Nicho Hynes has been named as the 18th man while Joseph Suaalii, Jordan McLean, Clint Gutherson and Victor Radley are the reserves. The team left Sydney today and will be based for the first part of camp at the beach side community of Scarborough before moving to Perth on Friday 24 June. The team will gather for the team photo at Scarboro Surf Life Saving Club later today. NSW BLUES SQUAD – GAME TWO, OPTUS STADIUM, PERTH, SUNDAY 26 JUNE 1. James Tedesco (c) (Sydney Roosters) 2. Brian To’o (Penrith Panthers) 3. Matt Burton (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs) 4. Stephen Crichton (Penrith Panthers) 5. Daniel Tupou (Sydney Roosters) 6. Jarome Luai (Penrith Panthers) 7. Nathan Cleary (Penrith Panthers) 8. Payne Haas (Brisbane Broncos) 9. Apisai Koroisau (Penrith Panthers) 10. Jake Trbojevic (Manly Warringah Sea Eagles) 11. Cameron Murray (South Sydney Rabbitohs) 12. Liam Martin (Penrith Panthers) 13. Isaah Yeo (Penrith Panthers) 14. Damien Cook (South Sydney Rabbitohs) 15. Angus Crichton (Sydney Roosters) 16. Junior Paulo (Parramatta Eels) 17. Siosifa Talakai (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks) 18. Nicho Hynes (Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks) 19. Joseph Suaalii (Sydney Roosters) 20. Jordan McLean (North Queensland Cowboys) 21. Clint Gutherson (Parramatta Eels) 22. Victor Radley (Sydney Roosters) Coach: Brad Fittler

The Chief of Defence Force (CDF), Major General Mark Goina DMS, CBE has confirmed that, as part of their ongoing joint inter agency security operations, personnel from the PNGDF Forward Operating Base at Tari and RPNGC MS6 members carried out a check of a charter flight from Port Moresby to Komo. The flight consisted of 100 passengers (97 males and 3 females) and all luggages and cargo was searched on arrival. The search was based on intelligence that people may have been trying to smuggle weapons and other contraband items into Hela on that flight. During the search the RPNGC MS6 team and PNGDF Military Police found, and confiscated, uniforms from the passengers including: 2 X DPU (combat pattern) shirts, 2 X DPU (combat pattern) trousers similar in style to current issue to the Defence Force, and 1 x pair of combat style boots. Additionally an unlicensed firearm was confiscated from a local after a search of the convoy of the passengers heading back to Tari. This whole incident is now being investigated by the RPNGC. This successful joint inter agency operation reinforces the close working relationship between the security forces operating in the Highlands. It is also a strong warning to anyone who is thinking about undertaking illegal or criminal acts, that the security forces will act swiftly and decisively on all intelligence leads. Major General Goina stated, reiterating the words of the Police Commissioner David Manning at the launch of the National Election security operations in the Highlands on 17 June 22, that the joint task force of RPNGC, PNGDF and PNG CS are determined to ensure that the region remains safe and secure for all members of the community leading up to, during and beyond the 2022 National Election.

The PNG Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PNGEITI) has applauded a collaboration between state’s mine regulator, Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) and mine operators to create a digital platform to provide real time mineral data from all major mines in the country. Live data will include numbers showing production value, export value, and related information basically livestreamed from a data source of respective mine operators. Ok Tedi Mine will be fist to streamline live data to the MRA website for public access after engineers have finalized work. Other will follow soon after. “The cooperation between the mine regulator and the extractive companies to make live data available for public viewing is an excellent undertaking to garner investor-public trust and confidence in the way the mining industry is regulated and progressing. PNGEITI highly commends these efforts,” PNGEITI Head of National Secretariat Mr. Lucas Alkan commended. “We commend the MRA leadership under managing director Jerry Garry as this undertaking will complement and enhance EITI reporting in the country. This is boost for transparency, boost for investor and public confidence,” he said. “We look forward to this important work being undertaken on this space and wish MRA and the companies every success” Mr. Alkan said