A new approach to managing PNG’s economy, Manus Island detention centre to be ‘wound down’, and PNG cricketers turning professional. Your weekly digest of the latest regional business news.

Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill says PNG is moving away ‘from the old mentality of allowing unrestricted growth, to one of managed economic growth’. He’s told the Third Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Samoa that the government owes it to future generations to manage resources ‘so that they last, and that the wealth is shared equally among stakeholders’.

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Manus Island Detention Centre. Credit: Fairfax Media

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has ordered that no asylum seekers be sent to the Manus Island Detention Centre, instead sending them to Nauru. Service providers, who have recently returned from working on Manus Island, report there appears to be a ‘winding down’. 

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Digicel Chairman Denis O’Brien has called for a new submarine cable to connect Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and Sydney. He describes broadband as the  ‘umbilical cord for economic development’.

Bank of South Pacific Board Chairman Kostas Constantinou has warned the Bank of PNG’s pegging of the kina to the US dollar will negatively impact profits in the second half of the year, ‘with a more significant impact in 2015’. The bank this week announced an operating profit of K369.3 million, an increase of 31.3% for the half-year to June.

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Curtain Brothers has started work on the biggest dry-dock facility in the southern hemisphere on Motukea. General Manager Justin McGann says construction will take 18 months. He says the firm is selling one third of its Motueka for Port Moresby’s new port site and will retain the other two thirds for development. Trade Minister Richard Maru confirmed the Government’s purchase of land for what he hopes will be ‘one of the most beautiful, accessible safe harbours in the world’.

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KAML’s Syd Yates

Kina Asset Management Limited has reported an investment income of K1.6 million in the first half of this year, lifting its total investment portfolio to K50.8 million.

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PanAust says its feasibility study and mining licence application for the Frieda River copper mine will be finished and lodged by November 2015. The Project comprises four copper-gold deposits and several prospects on the border of the Sandaun and East Sepik provinces and is one of the largest known undeveloped copper deposits in the world.

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Steamships Trading has announced an audited, after-tax profit of K51.1 million for the half year, a 66 per cent increase, but directors have warned of increasing pressures driven by a slower economy. Steamship’s Pacific Palms Property recorded higher revenues, after it opened Windward Apartments in Port Moresby and Blaikie Apartments in Lae, plus industrial units in Port Moresby and Madang.

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Japan’s Sojitz Corp says it hopes to finish its feasibility study into the proposed petrochemical plant site outside Port Moresby by the end of 2014.

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The Lae Chamber of Commerce is warning members of daily hold-ups along the Highlands Highway in the Miles area, due to the deteriorating road conditions. Mainland Holdings Limited are forced to use patrol vehicle to escort its vehicles.

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Two women’s groups from the Hidden Valley Gold mine in Morobe have won contracts to set up a guest house and to buy a truck to operate for a PMV business. They will be funded through the World Bank-funded ‘women in mining small grants project’.

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PNG may join Australia in filling the global need for nickel, after Indonesia banned the export of nickel earlier this year. Australia has several new nickel mines planned while two mines in PNG are also expected to capitalise on the gap. One is Niugini Nickel Ltd’s A$655 million Wowo Gap project, 200 kms east of Port Moresby, which is expected to produce 13,000 tonnes per year. The Direct Nickel–Regency Mines Mambare project, adjacent to the Kokoda Trail, is expected to process more than 3 million tonnes of ore.

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Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has told parliament he expects OK Tedi Mining Ltd will announce a good profit for this year despite some setbacks in the last two years. He also says the government will hand over an extra 19% shareholding to the people of Western Province.

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PNGSDP Chairman, Sir Mekere Morauta

Meanwhile, the Chairman of PNG Sustainable Development Program, Sir Mekere Morauta, has called on O’Neill to withdraw his claim that a Singapore court has won its case against PNGSDP. Sir Mekere says the court has rejected the PNG Government’s claim, which is why is seeking leave to appeal that decision.

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Papua New Guinea’s top cricketers are close to signing off on contracts that will make them full-time professionals. The Barramundis are ranked 16th in the world in one dayers. They will contest the South Australian Premier League this coming season.

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Customs officials have impounded 50 vehicles which were abandoned in Central Province after the end of the construction phase of the PNG LNG plant. They estimate the tax-exemption granted to the importer was worth K1.5 million.

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The Solomon Islands’ newest commercial bank, Pan Oceanic Bank, says it’s had a resounding response with more than 5000 accounts opened in its first two months.

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The United Nations has launched a US$5 million project to help low-income and rural Pacific Islanders access affordable savings, insurance, credit and other financial services.

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The UNDP will spend US$250 million on sustainable development projects in small island states over the next four years. Its Island Innovations report details more than 2,500 sustainable development projects worth more than US $2 billion.

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Samoa is turning to solar, wind and hydro energy to reduce its dependence on diesel fuel. A 10,000-panel solar energy project will provide 4.5% of Samoa’s energy needs.

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The outgoing Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission has warned an international agreement is urgently needed to avert disaster for the tuna industry. Professor Glenn Hurry says bluefin and bigeye tuna should no longer be harvested, as stocks are dangerously depleted.