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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cBoth sides agreed that PNG and New Zealand have strong ties, but it is unfortunate that the project could not continue,\u201d Tkatchenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201d High commissioner Zwart told secretary Wohengu that this was not an easy decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe project was first paused for 18 months in 2023, restarted in early 2025, but had to stop again because of conflicts. Keeping contractors during the delays was very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Zealand invested NZ$6.7 million (about K17m) over the last six years into the Enga Electrification Project which aimed to connect at least 4,000 households in the area to electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was part of combined efforts with the US, Australia and Japan to help 70 per cent of PNG homes get connected by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tkatchenko said New Zealand would now handover the high-voltage equipment in Tsak Valley to PNG Power Limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said running this equipment would need extra funding from another source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince the project was funded by both Australia and New Zealand, some of the materials may be moved to the Ramu Grid so the money invested in PNG\u2019s energy sector is still used,\u201d Tkatchenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former prime minister Peter O\u2019Neill agreed on the PNG Electrification Partnership with leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US, following the 2018 Apec Leaders Summit held in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ZEALAND has stopped its rural electrification project in Tsak Valley following ongoing tribal fights in Enga, Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko says. According to RNZ, a spokesperson for New Zealand\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said contractors stopped work at the site in Wapanamanda\u2019s Tsak Valley last August. Tkatchenko said New Zealand High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-u-k-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4294,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions\/4294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grants.zimadtech.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}