Mr. PRESIDENT,
EXCELLENCIES,
DISTINGUISHED DELEGATES,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

The major challenge for the national response to HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea has been our ability to be innovative in addressing the geo-political and socio-cultural diversity of our country. The trend of the epidemic in the country indicate that many Papua New Guineans are infected with the virus, many do not know that they have the virus and many more will continue to get infected due to the complexities of factors that will facilitate the epidemic in the country.

My country is probably one of the most difficult places to develop interventions to address an issue like HIV/AIDS.

The diversity of the country both in terms of culture and geographical terrain makes communication difficult with the rural communities. This is further compounded by the limitations of the low literacy rate and over 800 different languages which make the process of communication with the rural majority a daunting task.

My government has acknowledged the threat of the AIDS epidemic to the country by enacting the National AIDS Council Act in December 1997. The Act established the National AIDS Council and its Secretariat with core financing from the national government. The National AIDS Council Membership is made up of all central government agencies, the private sector and non-government organizations including the churches and people living with HIV/AIDS. In keeping with the Act we have established five working committees at the national level and twenty (20) Provincial AIDS Committees which are mandated to coordinate and implement provincial activity plans. The Provincial AIDS Committees are made up of people from all sectors and majority of them have attained provincial government endorsement and commitment. The five working committees at the national level are responsible for guiding the policy directions for the National response. The committees include:

· Behavior Change Advisory Committee,
· Medical Expert Advisory Committee,
· Legal and Ethical Advisory Committee,
· Research Advisory Committee, and
· Sectoral Response Advisory Committee.

The structures have been designed so that there are clear mechanisms for policy development and clear lines of communications with local authorities to plan and implement the comprehensive multi-sectoral response. We are committed to ensure that the Committees are transparent and accountable in order that this mechanism will minimize duplication, involve everyone as possible and allow for rational use of resources at all levels of our response.

Distinguished delegates, though it appears that we have small numbers, the problems we face are immense. We estimate that of the 5.2 million population of the country, about 10 to 15 thousand people will fall ill from the disease in the next few years. Majorities of the individuals to be affected will be the productive and economically important citizens for our society. In the WHO Western Pacific region my country is one of three most affected countries in the region with the potential of reaching the levels of sub-Saharan Africa in a decade. The Government is committed to avoiding this catastrophe with the support of our international partner agencies.

Major challenges facing us today are the already existing uncontrolled sexually transmitted infections, the growing problem of Tuberculosis and the difficulties of providing providing basic antenatal care to women through out the country. The need to set up proper pre-test and post-test counselling facilities presents a challenge in itself.

Other issues of major challenge already acknowledged by the government include the issue of security and violence. We are committed to addressing these and many other issues that have a potential of fueling the epidemic in the country through the multi-sectoral response, which we are pursuing actively.

I believe we must review many criterion set by global agencies which often exclude Papua New Guinea unnecessarily from getting the support that is required to improve social and economic development of the country. While PNG is seen as a resource rich country we still need financial support to ensure services are provided. The Papua New Guinea National AIDS Council is committed to facilitating a HIV and Development study which will aim to define factors that make PNG appear rich but remains poor. This study will enable us to clearly visualize the socio-economic development dimensions of HIV/AIDS and address them in our next medium term plan.

The UN system is urged to clearly define its role through the UNAIDS mechanism at country level so that we are able to tap the valuable global experiences the UN system may offer.

Access to treatment is an important challenge. To date the government does not provide anti-retroviral drugs to anyone living with the virus. We acknowledge that it is our moral and ethical responsibility to do so. We have been anxiously watching the global development and developing appropriate standards and protocols to introduce therapy. We have already commenced the process of introducing treatment for mother to child transmission and are working on expanding this to provide retroviral therapy to all.
However, our financial situation prohibits the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to those living with the virus.

We therefore, welcome the establishment of the UN HIV/AIDS Trust Fund and commend the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan for his insight and initiative. We thank those Governments and the private sector institutions that have contributed so far to this Fund. Whilst we understand that our problems may pale into insignificance compared to those of sub-Saharan Africa, we must not lose sight that prevention is the only solution to curtailing the spread of this disaster.  My Government sincerely hopes that Papua New Guinea's efforts to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS can receive support  from this Trust Fund.

We are also deeply grateful and acknowledge the generous support provided far by all our international partner agencies AusAID, the European Union, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, all the UN agencies including UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and World Health Organization. We however remain mindful that any support provided must aim to avoid dependency and instead empower us to develop the skills necessary to mount a comprehensive response that can be maintained in our cultural and geo-political setting.

Finally, my delegation wishes to thank the joint efforts of Ambassador  Penny Wensley of Australia and Ambassador  Ibra Ka of Senegal for coordinating the drafting of the outcome document for our consideration at this Special Session.

Thank you.