DWU hosts three major forums
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Abal & Byrne: PNG’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Trade Sam Abal (right) and Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Trade Anthony Byrne addressing the media during the first day of the PNG-Australia Business Forum last Monday. |
Climate Change 1: VIPs at the Climate Change Forum at DWU two weeks ago. From left to right, DWU acting president, Br Andrew Simpson, executive director of OCCES, Dr Theo Yasause, Fisheries Minister, Ben Semir and Madang governor, Arnold Amet (right). |
Fr Jan & Maden: DWU President, Fr Jan Czuba and managing director of Post PNG Ltd, Peter Maden at the PNG-Australia Business Forum held at the University last Monday. |
Lepani & Moraitis: PNG High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani (right) with Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Chris Moraitis at the PNG-Australia Business Forum held at Divine Word University last Monday. |
Divine Word University hosted three consecutive high profile forums over three weeks last month that brought distinguished leaders from across the country and overseas to the Madang campus.
The three forums were held at the University’s 500-seat SVD Memorial Auditorium.
The most recent forum hosted by DWU was the 25th annual PNG-Australia Business Forum, the first held outside of Australia, from 18th May to 19th May.
The two-day forum attracted government ministers, diplomats, bureaucrats and the “who is who” of PNG commerce and industry and their Australian counterparts.
The high profile delegates included the Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Trade Minister Sam Abal, Acting Minister for Commerce and Industry, Tony Aimo, Governor of Madang Province, Sir Arnold Amet, Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, Anthony Byrne, PNG High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani, Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Chris Moraitis and the Head of AusAID in PNG, Bill Costello.
The government and business leaders discussed the opportunities for business and investment in PNG and the challenges and solutions.
This important business forum was preceded by the national Climate Change Forum hosted by the Office of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (OCCES). This was one of four forums OCCES staged in the four regions of the country.
The Climate Change forum at DWU was for the Mamose region and attracted politicians, public servants, scientists, peak government agency representatives, community leaders, business people, non-government organizations and members of the public.
The presenters came from various government departments and the academia and spoke on the various issues and challenges that face the country what they were doing to help the country mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. The aim of the regional forums were to inform the public about the climate change and receive their feedback and help draw up legislation and policy to best dealt with the effects of climate change. The findings of the forums and other consultative of work of the government through the OCCES will be presented as a positional paper at the International climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.
The week before the two-day climate change forum saw the university hosting the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC) forum. This was an economic update session that saw peak government departments and agencies addressing the public on how the government was pursuing the economic development of the country through the various sectors such as agriculture, capital works and health among others. Ends/
