Honorable Governor Allan Bird: A Visionary Leader Transforming Eastern Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

Honorable Governor Allan Bird: A Visionary Leader Transforming Eastern Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

By Vincent Moses | Paitim Garamut

Brief on Honorable Governor  Allan Bird by Mr Gibson Gallah

Prior to politics, he was a businessman, a strategist, and an economist. 

He knows agriculture economics very well. He is known as the father of Sepik vanilla.

He is admired for rural development - the approaches it takes empower simple and struggling people in the villages. 

One can confirm that Bird knows macroeconomic and microeconomics very well. 

He was one of the architects of PNG's Vision 2050, which talks about wealth creation, empowerment of people etc.

When Allan Bird was first voted in as Governor ESP, he started with PGK 20,000 in the ESPG account. 

With PGK20,000, he focused on his tasks and delivered impact projects in his first term of parliament.

Some of the notable changes and reforms under his leadership are as follows:

• Restructured the ESP Provincial Administration

• Launched a 10 year Integrated Provincial Development Plan in 2018, with the Vision: "Empowering people to secure a sustainable future for Greater Sepik".

• Raised ESPG gst remittance from K2.8m in 2017 to K5m in 2018 and K15.2m in 2022. This conservatively indicated a 300% increase in consumer spending in ESP. 

No other provinces in the last 5 years has achieved this level of growth in consumer spending.

• Passed a record budget of more than K491m + PHA Budget of K44m. The people of ESP get to benefit from a government spend of K535m in 2022 compared to K228m in 2017 (incl Health) with an aim of K800m a year.

• Allan Bird mastered the PP model in partnership with EU STREIT program, which has an expenditure of K70m in ESP. Today, cocoa prices sits at PGK900 – PGK1000 in ESP. 

The evidences are right there – internal revenue has increased, consumer spending has increased and very simple people are able to meet their daily household needs such as paying for school fees etc.

• Allan Bird is a strong advocate for transparency, accountability, equal distribution of wealth, and good governance.

This is not rocket science. You don't need to have huge revenue from mines and LNG projects to be innovative. 

Bird started small, but he demonstrates that he can manage, create jobs, and build an economy.

Be your own judge – yes, he is a one man independent. No party affiliation. No strings attached to any corruption allegations. 

But, if conscience was what we need to choose a leader – Allan Bird ticks all the boxes - practically with evidence!

If he can manage Sepik economy and equally distribute wealth, promote good governance and create jobs for his people, there is no reason why he can't manage the country.