2008 was a year of significant progress for PNGSDP. We achieved many significant milestones and we have also provided a solid platform for the delivery of a range of new and rewarding projects in 2009.

In review of the year's achievements I am satisfied that we are on the right path to furthering our commitment to not only the people of Western Province, but also Papua New Guinea. This has come to fruition over the last year through hard work and close working relationships with both community and government entities. Without their support and commitment our achievement would not have been possible.

Strengthening our relationship with government
I am pleased to report that this year we have had considerable success in strengthening our working relations with the National and Provincial Governments.

This culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Government and PNGSDP . The agreement provides a unique framework for partnering with government and allows PNGSDP to ease some of the challenges faced by the Government. The next step is to formalise this framework through the development of a State level agreement, allowing for strengthened future relations.

At the provincial level our relationships were also strengthened during 2008 through the continued promotion of sustainable development in Western Province. This work culminated with a draft Memorandum of Agreement between the Company and the Fly River Provincial Government, which now has in principle agreement with the PNGSDP Board.

Working with the future generation
In furthering it's belief that the future of Papua New Guinea lies in the value of strategic investments in human capital, PNGSDP continued its support of various programs of leadership with further funding towards the development of a leadership culture, through learning programs to enhance the skills of emerging and current leaders. Support was also given to enhancing the knowledge of youths to acquire skills in governance, advocacy, political participation, anticorruption and human rights.

Throughout 2008 we had the pleasure of sharing our Company's values and resources with the future leaders of Western Province by direct interaction with the Fly River Students Association, which has a membership of 109 Port Moresby based university students. PNGSDP was able to contribute in a major way for them to reach out to their own people in awareness programs over the Christmas break. We now have ongoing programs of capacity building and will seek to develop tools to assist them in their academic development so that the children of Western Province can once again feature in the top tier of nationhood building. I intend to cover the whole country where Western Province students are in tertiary institutions and assist them discovering their full potential.

In 2008, PNGSDP has also invested heavily in the future education of two of the top boy and girl students from three of the Western Provincial high schools to attend prestigious Universities in Australia.

Our work
PNGSDP is directed across a wide spectrum of community activities including health, education, economic development, infrastructure improvement, self-reliance, leadership, capacity building and other social, business and environmental issues.

We seek to achieve this by supporting organisations currently working amongst communities and with a focus upon community development to harness and mobilise resources to promote sustainable development at the community level.

Our entire project achievements throughout 2008 are presented in this report. However what this annual report cannot convey is the emotions of gratitude and hope for the future that we share with the grass roots people of Papua New Guinea as we bring various projects into fruition. Working with PNGSDP allows us to share the humble parents' relief and elation at having their children heading to a University in Australia thereby securing a good future. We are honored to share the gratitude of remote Papua New Guinea communities who go to great lengths at project completion, to let us know how valuable clean water, roads, classrooms and health centers are to them. The urgent call for development in remote Papua New Guinea is such that we experience communities themselves contributing cash, free capital and free human labor for essential basic communal facilities and asking PNGSDP to assist. The experience of being able to answer some of those calls by delivering projects with the assurance of project sustainability is truly rewarding for us.

Next year's priorities
Looking forward, PNGSDP is now well placed to deliver on the ground results for the people of Papua New Guinea. We are convinced that an effective way for sustainable development to reach remote Papua New Guinea is to assist in the structuring of major commercial projects purposely designed at inception, to drive rural development. Therefore we are totally committed to the infrastructure corridor development in the Western Province and its gas and mineral commercialisation through downstream processing and export.

Our priorities in 2009 will be to effectively participate in the Ok Tedi mine closure exercise by OTML aimed at 2013, national scale projects, community based infrastructure and services, community grants, and partnering arrangements.

PNGSDP is committed to progress the province-wide roll-out of telecommunications towers to enable the many people in the towns and villages of remote Western Province to connect, for the first time, to their friends, family and colleagues via the internet and via mobile phones and radio. The communications program is in addition to our substantial program of road, jetty and airstrip development as well as provision of energy supply. Looking forward, PNGSDP is likely to increase its role in the support of health and education services as the capacity for other providers to do so winds down as we near Ok Tedi mine closure.

In conclusion, as I say to my staff, there is a lot of work still to do. PNGSDP looks forward to the challenges of the coming years and will be devoted to improving the livelihood of the people of Papua New Guinea and especially those of the Western Province.