But Morobe does not have to rely on the exploitation of its natural resources as a source of wealth. More than some other provinces, it has the skills of its people to offer. Morobe has commercial, manufacturing and industrial activities. It has nineteen wharves and a coastal shipping industry. It has recently acquired a vast fish canning factory, said to be the largest in the Pacific. T hree hundred people work here, mainly women. T he mackerel they put in tins in this Malaysian-owned factory comes from the other side of the world. T his is Morobe's role in what has become a global fishing and marketing enterprise.
However the quality of life for the inhabitants of Morobe Province is not determined only by the income-generating possibilities that exist there. T he action or inaction of government officials and the kind of public services that they provide, or fail to provide, is equally important. T his is a question that exercises the A dministrator of Morobe Province, A inea Sengaro. O n his office wall is a whiteboard listing the agreed expenditure on such things as bridge maintenance, road building, and work on wharves, airstrips and the water supply, with a record of money spent. "Socially, economically and politically Morobe is a province which is doing better than most but