Australia’s planned development assistance for Manus Province under the Partnership for Development (2012–15) was expected to be approximately $15 million. However, according to a recent update released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 20 March 2015 (Economic and Development Benefits to PNG of the Regional Resettlement Arrangement), Australia is now providing additional assistance of about $38 million, despite a shrinking overall aid budget.
The additional funds are being spent on:
Separately, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) is spending about $513 million to upgrade infrastructure in PNG. Disaggregated expenditure for Manus Province is not available. Nor is there any available information on the ODA-eligibility of any of this expenditure.
According to the Joint Communique issued at the 23rd Papua New Guinea-Australia Ministerial Forum on 15 December 2014, a new partnership arrangement will be finalised by mid-2015 and will ‘capture the recommendations of the PNG Aid Assessment, Australia’s new development policy and the PNG Government’s new foreign aid policy and revised Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) 2015–2018 and their associated targets’.
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