Paias Wingti

Paias Wingti ( born February 2, 1951) is a politician of New Guinea papua. He was Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1985 to 1988, and again from 1992 to 1994.

Wingti is a member of the Jika tribe from the Western Highlands. He studied at the University of Papua New Guinea economy and won in 1977, during his final year of study, the choice for the parliamentary seat of the constituency Mount Hagen. In 1985 he became the leader of the party People's Democratic Movement, which he had split off from the Pangu Party, the youngest Prime Minister of the Commonwealth; after Michael Somare had lost a no-confidence motion in Parliament. Julius Chan, who himself ran for Prime Minister, was his deputy.

Since 1987 Wingti led a coalition of five parties, who reigned in the Parliament with a majority of three votes. In foreign policy, he strengthened relations with the Soviet Union, the USA, Japan and the PRC. He lost in 1988 a renewed confidence motion, but returned in 1992 back for another two-year term in power.

1993 traveled Paias Wingti for talks with his counterpart in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in order to make the resource-rich Papua New Guinea, which had been mainly driven by Australia trade new economic relations with these countries.

From 2002 to 2007 he was governor of the province of the Western Highlands; an office which he had previously exercised right from 1995 to 1997. In the parliamentary elections of 2007, he lost his parliamentary seat.