About Lae
Lae, the capital of Morobe is home to a diverse range of people, indigenous cultures and has a lush green environment due to its five metres per annum rainfall. The Huon Gulf curves majestically around its shores making Lae a picturesque seaside setting against the tough and rugged terrain which hugs the coast.
A town from the gold rush era, Lae is the gateway to the Highlands and the islands with its central location near the Huon Gulf. With the influx of many migrants from Highlands and Madang regions, the town has grown to become the industrial capital of Papua New Guinea.
About Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea has a population of approximately 6.7 million. The Papua New Guinea mainland and its six hundred islands have a total area of 463,000 square kilometres. Most of the people are Melanesian, but some are Micronesian or Polynesian. Papua New Guinea has over 800 known languages. English, Tok Pisin (Pidgin), and Hiri Motu (the lingua franca of the Papuan region) are the official languages.
The spectrum of Papua New Guinea society now ranges from traditional village-based life, dependent on subsistence and small cash-crop agriculture, to modern urban life in the main cities of Port Moresby (capital), Lae, Madang, Wewak, Goroka, Mt Hagen, and Rabaul. Some 85 per cent of the population directly derive their livelihood from farming, and 15 per cent of the population live in urban areas. Population growth is estimated to be 2.8 per cent annually.
Papua New Guinea is situated directly to the north of Australia. Separated by the Torres Strait, PNG is less than 200 kilometres from the Australian mainland. Yet the two countries are far apart in various ways :
Australia’s GDP per capita is more than 15 times higher than PNG’s.
Australians on average live nearly 20 years longer than Papua New Guineans.
Papua New Guinean women are 32 times more likely to die during childbirth than Australian women.
Whereas almost all Australian adults are literate, nearly one in three Papua New Guinean adults cannot read or write.
The majority (60 percent) of Papua New Guineans do not have guaranteed access to safe drinking water, and the rate of people living with HIV/AIDS is the highest in the Pacific.
PNG is known for its high rate of gender-based violence. According to the PNG Law Reform Commission, 70 percent of women in PNG say they have been physically abused by their husbands. That number reaches 100 percent in some parts of the country.