The stormy events at the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone forum last Friday have received plenty of media attention, but one question remains unanswered: what has happened to the K25 million of public money allocated in the 2007 national budget for PMIZ preparatory works?

This question was put directly and publicly to government Ministers Gabriel Kapris and Arnold Amet, by Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather on Friday.

From a Special Correspondent

When  three  senior  government ministers arrived at Alexishafen on Friday for a public forum on the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ),  they didn’t expect the kind of  anger they got from the Rempi and Kananam communities.  

Francis Gem, from the Kanamam area  took the stage in front of 300 people  and  in one swooping motion  said:

Landowners from Madang have secured a significant and important victory in their opposition to the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone which is being built on their land by the government with money borrowed from China.

The government says the PMIZ will be Papua New Guinea's first Special Economic Zone, under new laws being written for PNG by the World Bank. The government says the PMIZ will provide a hub for tuna processing in the region and around 30,000 factory jobs.