The Chairman of Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), Peter Taylor, praised the people of Bougainville as ‘smart, capable and valuable’ in a speech to the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Forum on 20 May.
Mr Taylor, who served as President of the Australia-PNG Business Council from 2011 to 2014, was speaking on the economic opportunities and constraints for business in Bougainville.
Bougainvilleans have been amongst the best educated people in PNG.
“The Bougainvillean workforce which operated the Panguna mine, and later dispersed to become the backbone of the PNG resource development boom, is testament to that.”
Mr Taylor stated that young people and the ‘lost generation’, those that missed out on an education because of the decade-long Bougainville crisis, have a great desire for education and employment opportunities.
“More than 10,000 Bougainvilleans received training and apprenticeships during the operation of the Panguna mine,” Mr Taylor said.
“Many of these became a Bougainvillean diaspora in the 1990s, highly valued for their skills, experience and work ethic in industries across Papua New Guinea.
“The crisis robbed a generation of educational opportunity and that is a tragedy that needs to be remedied.
“Many younger Bougainvilleans are in need of vocational training and are eager to acquire it.”
The Division of Education within the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) is in the process of implementing education programs throughout the region, including upgrades to schools and technical colleges.
The Joint Panguna Negotiation Coordination Committee (JPNCC) is also committed to education to enable local people to be ready for a range of employment opportunities including the potential resumption of mining.
One of the first areas of employment driven by the JPNCC – which is made up of representatives of landowners, the ABG, the Government of Papua New Guinea and BCL – will be for Bougainvilleans to provide support and services for baseline studies into environmental, social and economic conditions in mine-affected areas.