For Papua New Guinea (PNG), 2025 marks a significant milestone. This September, the Pacific country will celebrate its 50th year of independence with the theme “Stronger Together, Growing the Future.” Part of strengthening and bringing the country together is building and improving PNG’s infrastructure development. The Corporate Plan for 2025-2029 was launched by the Department of Works and Highways (DoWH), providing transformative infrastructure while promoting social development, economic growth, and connection.
In November 2024, PNG increased its infrastructure development budget by 273% from 2018. Amounting to a K7.6 billion allocation, this investment aims to improve the country’s connectivity, economic growth, and livelihood. In addition, building sustainable roads and climate-resilient infrastructure can help PNG adapt to climate change.
Connect PNG, a long-term endeavor to improve national and regional connections, is one of the main projects propelling PNG’s infrastructure development. Gibson Holemba, acting secretary of the DoWH, said, “The Connect PNG program is critical to our future, and as we prepare for the next phase of infrastructure development, it’s essential that we incorporate the government’s priorities into the new corporate plan.”
Minister for Works and Highways Solan Mirisim shared that to connect all 22 provinces to the national highway network, DoWH has to prioritize critical missing links and major corridors. Among the prioritized highways are the Lae-Nazab four-lane project, Ramu Highway, New Britain Highway, Magi Highway, Hiritano Highway, Highlands Highway, Sepik Highway, Coastal Highway (Madang to Wutung), Boluminski Highway, Bougainville Highway, Manus East-West Highway, Kiunga to Tabubil Highway, and Wau Highway.
For Connect PNG’s first phase, which started in 2021 and will end in 2027, the government aims to strengthen and update roads and bridges to promote connectivity throughout key regions. These key regions include Morobe, Central, and Milne Bay, which the government hopes to connect by 2025. Meanwhile, phase two will run from 2028 to 2034.
According to the Corporate Plan 2025-2029, Connect PNG aims to build 2,500 km of new roads by 2027. The program also aims to improve and maintain 14 major road corridors, including the Trans-National Corridor, Baiyer Corridor, Momase Corridor, Highlands Corridor, Gulf-Southern Highlands Corridor, Gulf-Madang Corridor, New Britain Corridor, Southern Corridor, Trans Fly Border Corridor, Bougainville Corridor, New Ireland Corridor, Manus Highway, Sandaun Border Corridor, and Provincial Trunk Road. Seven of these corridors are also a priority in the Medium-Term Development Plan IV, a five-year strategic government policy of PNG.
Aside from economic growth, improving PNG’s infrastructure development is also a key to climate adaptation. Due to its atmospheric conditions and geography, PNG is one of the countries most susceptible to the effects of climate change globally. The country has been experiencing a rise in temperature of about 0.8–0.9 °C. Natural disasters like drought, cyclones, landslides, floods, and rising sea levels worsened by climate change are not new to PNG. Floods and rising sea levels severely impact infrastructure development, damaging road networks and ports.
With the Corporate Plan 2025-2029, the government aims to invest in climate-resilient and sustainable roads and infrastructure to provide better access for the communities to schools, markets, hospitals, and others.
“The Connect PNG Program since its inception has created more than 20,000 direct and indirect jobs, reduce [the] cost of transport by 20%, and ensure[d] 80% of rural communities have reliable road access to health and education facilities with [a] 30-60 minute travel radius,” Mirisim said.