As the country gears up to celebrate it’s 49 years of Independence, the Yangoru-Saussia District in East Sepik Province is also preparing to host a big 49th Independence celebration on Monday, September 16. Local Member and Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru said: “This is a good time to reflect on the progress we have made as a country and as a district over the last 49 years. It is time to come together and thank God for His blessings over the last 49 years despite our sinfulness.” “We, the people of Yangoru-Saussia District have come a long way over the last 49 years including achieving many successes like being the leading cocoa producing district in the country producing over 14 metric tons annually and leading the province in quality education with eight High Schools with three Secondary Schools.” “We did not have a bank branch since independence but now we have two banks in the district (BSP and Women’s Microbank). In October our new Yangoru Mobile Barracks will be completed and ready to receive the first batch of 45 policemen and women who will be based in the district and operating from Yangoru, our District Headquarters. We now have a commercial chicken farm in the district which not only produces chicken meat and eggs, but from last week producing 10, 000-day-old chicks a week to support our local chicken farmers in our district and in the province with the price per box reduced from K500 at Lae to now only K270 (50% reduction) from our own Haripmo Farm.” Minister Maru stated: “We have done well in many areas of development; however, we still have serious law-and-order issues and challenges, and unreliability and lack of power supply system are major impairments to our development aspirations and to our ability to attract large investors to come and invest in our district. “This has not been helped by our inability to mobilize land for large-scale agriculture developments. These are challenges that we must overcome and we are hoping that apart from the chicken project, we will have our first oil palm project started before the year ends. We have so much untapped economic potential which we must, with God’s help harness to create much needed jobs and create wealth for our people.” Minister Maru said he will announce the new projects and initiatives for the district at the celebrations. “I appeal to all people of Yangoru-Saussia District to prepare for our 49th Independence celebrations at Yangoru Station on Monday, September 16, 2024. The Yangoru-Saussia DDA is hiring all our PMVs and buses to bring all our people from our four LLGs for the Independence celebrations at Yangoru Station,” said Minister Maru. “Our 50th Anniversary celebrations next year will be even bigger," added Minister Maru.