Sir Zibang Zurenuoc

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

(born September 1927 at Sattleberg,

Finschhafen Finschhafen is a town east of Lae on the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The town is commonly misspelt as Finschafen or Finschaven. During World War II, the town was also referred to as Fitch Haven in the logs of some U. ...

; died 5 February 2008 in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

"Morobe mourns loss of pioneer"
, ''Post Courier'', 7 February 2008) was a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

n businessman and politician. He served as a co-operative officer in the colonial public service in New Ireland when Papua New Guinea was under

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n colonial administration. In 1958, he set up the "now famous" Finschhafen Marketing and Development Co-operative (FMDC). He was also a founding director of Mainland Holdings. He was subsequently appointed business representative to the Morobe Constituent Assembly, and served as chairman of Morobe's Constituent Assembly. In the 1977 general election, the first after the country's independence, he was elected to the

National Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

as MP for

. He later served as Deputy Speaker and was also a government minister. He was Minister for Community and Family Services to Prime Minister

Julius Chan Sir Julius Chan (29 August 1939 – 30 January 2025) was a Papua New Guinean politician who served as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He was Member of Parliament for New Ireland Province, having won t ...

in the early 1980s. He was "long-time general secretary" of the

People's Progress Party The People's Progress Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It was founded on 11 November 1969 by Julius Chan and Warren Dutton, forming a caucus of eleven members of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. Following indepe ...

. In 1994,

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Queen of Papua New Guinea The monarchy of Papua New Guinea is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Papua New Guinea. The current Papua New Guinean monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles II ...

, on the advice of the Papua New Guinean government, appointed him Knight Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, "for community services".''London Gazette'', 30 December 1994 The Zurenuoc family has had a number of distinguished members. His brother Sir Zurewe Zerenuoc was the first Papua New Guinean to head the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is a Protestant church denomination located in Papua New Guinea that professes the Lutheran branch of the Christian faith. The Church is incorporated by a 1991 Act of the Parliament of Papua New ...

. His other brother, Zure Makili Zurenuoc, was "a pioneer educationist" and also served as MP for Finschhafen after him. His nephew Guao Zurenuoc was MP for Finschhafen from 2002 to 2007, and his (Zibang's) son

Theo Zurenuoc Theodore Zibang Zurenuoc (born 6 October 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the acting governor-general of Papua New Guinea in February 2017. He was first elected to the National Parliament in the 2007 general election, as ...

had been MP for Finschhafen from 2007 to 2017. He died in Port Moresby on 5 February 2008 "after undergoing medical treatment".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zurenuoc, Zibang 1927 births 2008 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea Government ministers of Papua New Guinea People's Progress Party politicians 20th-century Papua New Guinean businesspeople Papua New Guinean knights People from Morobe Province