Developing Papua New Guinea By: Tre’ Canestra

Current Development Status Papua new guinea is currently in stage 1 of 5 of economic development according to Rostow’s Model. This stage is the traditional society where there is still sustenance, barter, and dependence on agriculture. Papua New Guinea is not all stone age though, it still has a city called Port Moresby which is its capital.

Natural Factors Papua New Guinea is a few islands located north of Australia and shares the eastern half its main island with Indonesia the worlds 4th largest country population wize. Papua New Guinea has a very diverse geography. A spine of mountains run through the entire length of the island. It is covered by rainforests and wetlands and swamplands. It is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes The Average temperature is around 80°F yearlong yet snowfall still occurs in some of the highlands. The entire island is surrounded by corral reef.

Natural Factors Natural Rescources – Gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries. Land use – Arable Land 0.44%, Crops 1.4%, (Forests, swamplands ect.) 98.11%

Human Factors Health- HDI 0.431, rank 137 Age Structure - 36.4% Age 0-14, 3.6% Age 64 Up, 60% Working Age . Dependency Ratio - 66% Population - 6.8 Million, growth rate 1.985% Life Expectancy – 61.6 years Fertility rate – 3.46 children per women They have Tribal doctors, and Witchdoctors

Human Factors Education - Most education provided by church institutions Papua New Guinea is 97% Christian but they still practice old tribal conditions. School Life Expectancy – 4.3 years Education expenditures – 7.3% of GDP Over 820 Languages spoken in this country. English is official Language, but is not widely spoken

Economic Factors Sectors - GDP - $13.734 Billion Per Capita - $2395 Public Debt – 27.8% of GDP Unemployment rate – 1.8% Agriculture – 32.2% Industry – 35.7% Services – 32.1% Sectors -

Obstacles to Development Internal Factors- The lack of infrastructure, due to such a weak government which owns about 2% of New Guineas land. Such vast cultural diversity from tribes to Christianity will prevent the government from getting any stronger. The average New Guinean earns about $1.25 USD per day, but dollars mean almost nothing in a society where only 18% of the population lives in an urban environment. There are far too many tribes with a significant amount of land to tap into the lands natural resources. The lack of access to technology causes a lot of improvisation like using skulls as pillows as shown to the left 

Obstacles to Development Surrounding countries like Indonesia and Australia have absolute advantage over this country which will make it hard to compete in foreign markets. External Factors - The head of state of the country is Queen Elizabeth II, so it is controlled by others. New Guinea is just seen as a country for tourism, which is bad when it tries to step up its game and enter the global market. Education, and the economy of the entire country is controlled by external factors like churches.

Resources and Potential New Guinea has probably the most untapped resources in the world by percentage of its land. 98.2% of which is all forest, swampland, and mountain. It also has well over 50% of its Internal - population living in tribes which means it has a lot of untapped laborers to tap into. The country has historically lived on sustenance and backyard agriculture for thousands of years. If agriculture can be increased, the majority of it will be surplus and ready to ship globally. The countries surrounding New Guinea have an absolute advantage. This means New Guinea has a comparative advantage over Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Increasing exports to these countries will be the next step in development. (As shown in the picture to the left) Indonesia is a gateway to the rest of the Industrialized world. External -

Formal Proposal The type of project that will help my country quickly get to the 2nd stage of development is infrastructure investment. Stage 2 is the Transitional stage on Rostow’s model. To get there a country starts specialization, has surpluses, and infrastructure. Step 1 To do this the government of New Guinea needs money to buy unused land from tribes. This land will be stripped of its timber an (abundant resource), and exported to nearby countries. With this profit, agriculture on this new land can start, and roads will be built to keep a flow to the ports. Agriculture will be specialized so that my country has an absolute advantage over any surrounding countries and can make a lot of money. This first part of the plan will take 2 years to begin.

Step 2 Continue step 1 of buying unused land, and turning it into agricultural fields and building roads. Then the government will have more power over the people of New Guinea, taxes on tribes in the form of crops instead of cash will influence all of the tribes in my country to focus on agriculture to pay their taxes. In return for their taxes, once turned into money, it can be used to buy educational facilities across the country. Step 3 These educational facilities will help tribes learn more efficient ways of growing crops to be exported to surrounding countries. Within 5 years over 90% of children will be literate, and a monetary currency will be able to become national.

Analysis This specialization of agriculture by using your money to buy unused land will bring my country into stage 2 of Rostow’s Model within 5 years. There is no other country like New Guinea so nothing like this has happened before. But with Hundreds of millions of people on the islands of Australia, Indonesia, and Philippines, and with an comparative advantage since laborers can get paid in food, means this project is very possible. The education of people across the country will increase and a single monetary currency can soon be adopted which will add New Guinea to the global market. Costs of this project will be 20billion dollars to buy enough land to get started with. This one donation is the only one that will have to be received, because after the land is utilized everything will be profit. That small amount of 20billion dollars will bring the majority of my country out of the Stone Age, and into the Modern era.

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