Source: The National - Tuesday 11th October, 2011
By ABIGAIL APINA

THE Department of Works plans to move the country forward, Minister for Transport and Works Francis Awesa says.
Opening the department’s 28th Field Staff conference in Kokopo yesterday, he said to enable this and the overall objective of the PNG Vision 2050, it required institutions such as the department to deliberate on concepts and elaborate on mechanisms to ensure an effective and efficient management and implementation regime that could deliver on time and cost value.
He said it was important for the department not to lose focus of its responsibility in ensuring a safe and trafficable network of roads and to maintain and regulate the building industry.
He said Papua New Guinea had entered into the zone that placed greater demands on getting the basic and fundamental issues right.
“That requires the Department of Works to step up and ensure fundamental priorities are delivered,” he said.
He said to achieve that, the department’s strategies had to be
concentrated on the eventual outcome.
“The department has to first improve and correct whatever resources are available,” Awesa said.
He said it was important that the department prepared a workforce that could address the present circumstances without losing sight of long-term goals.
He said the Vision 2050 required the department to be a fore-runner in providing and enabling a nourishing environment for greater social and economic attainment.
He challenged provincial works managers to expand this concept to other provinces