Global perception
How the Pacific Games will reshape the world view of PNG.
“Anyone who thinks the 2015 Pacific Games is just a sporting event is greatly underestimating the scale, scope and potential of this project,” Peter Stewart says.
Stewart says the Games could attract more than 4000 visitors, who he wants to return home with stories of how friendly and welcoming PNG is to tourists and businesses.
“Word-of-mouth tributes from firsthand experience are far more effective than millions of kina spent on advertising campaigns,” he notes.
Stewart says nearly 300 international media personnel will produce stories about PNG in general, as well as reporting on the Games.
A total of 28 sports and disciplines will be featured, including athletics, touch rugby, shooting, boxing, basketball, netball, swimming, tennis, hockey, karate, beach volleyball and lawn bowls.
Stewart says 1500 hours of broadcast material being produced by the Games Organising Committee for distribution throughout the world across television, satellite, cable, internet and digital phone networks will play an important role in changing the perceptions of PNG.
As well as local broadcaster EMTV showing the Games, new TV station, Click TV, will also show live and delayed Games coverage throughout the Pacific on its High Definition channel on Intellsat-19.
These major events further enhance the reputation of the nation, while also attracting important overseas investment in the form of hotel beds and
restaurants filled.
Stewart says he expects the PGK1.2 billion being spent on the Games and new facilities will allow PNG to attract other major sporting, cultural and business events.
“These major events further enhance the reputation of the nation and continue the promotion strategy, while also attracting important overseas investment in the form of hotel beds and restaurants filled, not to mention work for local companies to support these events.”
In addition to sporting facilities under construction in Port Moresby—most notably, a new swimming centre and a re-built Sir John Guise Stadium—there are also major infrastructure projects currently under way.
These include the Kookaburra Flyover, which will connect Jacksons International Airport to Waigani, a ring-road around the Paga Hill beachfront in Town, and the Games Village at the University of PNG, which will be converted to student accommodation once the Games are over.
One of the features of the new Athletes Village will be a free WiFi and internet
service to residents during the Games, courtesy of Telikom PNG, a platinum sponsor, and Datec PNG.
The Games Organising Committee has secured over PGK30 million through corporate sponsorship to help fund the cost of hosting the Games. BSP is the Official Sponsor, while Platinum Sponsors include Ok Tedi Mining, Telikom PNG, PNG Power, S P Brewery and Puma Energy. Air Niugini is a Gold Sponsor of the Games.
“Our target has been to raise PGK60 million,” Stewart said, “and we are just about to reach that because currently the funds we have secured sits at PGK55 million, which is a combination of sponsorship and Government support.”
“We are on track and are very confident that we will reach our target to deliver these Games successfully.”
Local company, Makoda Productions Limited, will produce the opening and closing ceremonies, winning the contract ahead of eight other production companies.
Makoda has engaged two of the biggest names in international cultural events to lead the core team, executive producer Merryn Hughes and coartistic director Nigel Jamieson.
Hughes has worked on six international opening and closing Olympic and sporting ceremonies, including the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
Jamieson was the artistic director for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the Manchester and Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He has a particular interest in working with indigenous cultures and codirected the historic Yeperenye Federation Festival featuring 2000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait performers from 40 language groups, which involved a fourhour television broadcast.
The team’s co-artistic director Arileke Ingram has vast experience in traditional Pacific music and co-founded the Wantok Music Foundation, a leading music label in the region.
“The opening and closing ceremonies are expected to be a captivating blend of traditional, contemporary and international flavours,” says Emma Waiwai, chairperson of the Games Organising Committee. ■