For the 50th time, the national flag of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was raised on Independence Hill at Waigani, Port Moresby city as the country marks its 50th Independence Anniversary. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape in his independence speech said PNG in the past 5 decades saw both challenges and achievements. The achievements have progressed the country forward this far while the challenges were lessons taught and learnt. “The last 50 years has not been easy, it has been a journey of struggle and survival, but also resilience and progress,” said the PM. “The first 27 years of our life, it has been short term, politics and instability. In between, there have been many challenges, fragility and exposure to instability shook our nation to the core, but thank goodness to our resilience, our country persevered.” In the last 23 years, Prime Minister Marape said Papua New Guinea stabilized a little bit. “Our democracy produced stability, and we began to see growth in our country,” said the PM. “More schools and hospitals were built, roads were opened, airports were constructed. We invested in infrastructure, also, we sent more children to study overseas as well as in our country.” “I want to say, whilst we have not achieved much, 50 years on we’re standing on a firm ground of democracy today, more stable, more confident and ready to transform our country the next 50 years.” He said the future now holds so many opportunities and as a people and as a country, it is time everyone works together to journey into the future. The prime minister at the end of his speech acknowledged the partner countries in the pacific and in the world, who have stood by and supported PNG through its 50 years of nationhood. “To all our development partners, let me say a big thank you on behalf of all my citizens of my country.” Dignitaries in attendance at the flag raising include the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward representing King Charles III, the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele. Other pacific leaders also attended including a big delegation from China. Japan government representatives also were present as well as the US Secretary of State, and the Deputy President of Indonesia.