Morgan Mellish, Jayapura – A group of 40 international donor organisations, including the Australian government and the World Bank, flew to the troubled Indonesian province of Papua this week to meet recently elected governor Barnabas Suebu.

At the end of a day-long meeting outlining his vision, Mr Suebu had one simple message for the diplomats and aid workers: "If you have any trouble getting a permit from the Indonesian government to enter Papua, then come and see me." To reinforce this message, he put the phone numbers of his aides up on the screen.

"If we want to build toll roads, airports and container facilities, they are very expensive," Mr Suebu said after the meeting. "That is why we require donors and they are welcome. "This is the first time we've held a meeting like this and they [the donors] are very enthusiastic."

Indonesia's easternmost province – which has huge natural resources but is still one of the country's poorest – has in effect been a no-go area for most Western organisations due to a low-level but politically sensitive separatist campaign that has simmered for more than 30 years.

Because of this, the Indonesian government, which has ruled the former Dutch colony with an iron fist, has been reluctant to grant access to Western organisations, including media, fearing they would encourage independence sentiments.

"Donors have been staying away from Papua for two reasons," said the head of the World Bank in Indonesia, Andrew Steer. "One, operating here is difficult and projects have a much lower rate of return [than elsewhere in Indonesia]. Two, for political reasons it's been a little more tricky for them to engage."

This is particularly so for the Australian government and Australian non-governmental organisations, which Jakarta has long suspected of supporting independence for Papua.

These tensions only grew earlier this year after Canberra granted asylum to a group of 42 Papuan refugees who claimed there were widespread human rights abuses. As one Western diplomat put it: "You'll never hear Jakarta admit it, but most diplomats have been banned from Papua for years."

At the moment, the United Nations has a small presence here and there are Catholic missionaries. All foreigners wanting to enter the province must apply to the Indonesian government for a travel permit known as a surat jalan. It took The Australian Financial Review, for example, six months to get one. Even then, movements are strictly limited.

Mr Steer said that under new special autonomy laws aimed at quelling the independence movement, the Indonesian government had vastly increased revenue payments to Papua in recent years and it needed advice rather than money, which donor organisations would be happy to provide.