India, Papua New Guinea crucial agreements

India and Papua New Guinea have signed four agreements, including in areas of healthcare and information technology, during President Pranab Mukherjee’s recent visit to this Pacific island-nation. Papua New Guinea is the largest of all the Pacific island-nations and Mukherjee’s visit is the first ever presidential visit from India to this country.

The four MoUs are:

• A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India’s ministry of health and family welfare and Paua New Guinea’s ministry of health and HIV/AIDS for a broad range of cooperation in the field of healthcare and medical science.
• Another MoU was signed between the Papua New Guinea government and the Export Import Bank of India for a $100-million credit line for development of infrastructure in the island-nation.
• The third MoU was between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, and PNG University of Technology, Lae, for cooperation in agricultural research.
• The fourth MoU was signed between the governments of India and Papua New Guinea for establishing of India-Papua New Guinea Centre for Excellence in IT.