After 20 years building a successful transport company, Mapai Transport founder Jacob Luke is exploring ways to correct PNG’s trade imbalance with NZ, and providing training opportunities for young Papua New Guineans.
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Climate change is the ‘single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific’, according to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS). But the region is showing leadership and there are opportunities for Papua New Guinea to gain access to climate finance.
E-commerce, empowering women in business and anti-dumping measures were highlights of last month’s APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting in Port Moresby. Business Advantage PNG asked Douveri Henao, Lead Staffer for ABAC, for his response to the meeting.
Papua New Guinea’s first LNG project has transformed the country’s exporting landscape, with Japan overtaking Australia as its number one trading partner. China will also become a major source of funds, taking over from Australia and global lending agencies. But don’t expect the broader bilateral relationships to change quickly.
Thirty-six executives from major Chinese energy, forestry, fisheries, tourism and construction businesses are in PNG this week to look for investment and development opportunities. Pacific Trade Commissioner David Morris is leading the delegation.
The current rise in the US dollar is likely to flatten in 2016, offering respite to Pacific curencies, according to ANZ economists, Glenn Maguire and Eugin Lee.
The regional PACER Plus trade agreement will not pose a threat to Papua New Guinea’s manufacturing sector, but could rejuvenate it, according to Edwini Kessie, Chief Trade Adviser of the Pacific Island Countries, who spoke with Business Advantage PNG.
The message from the New Caledonia Business Lunch in Sydney, Australia, on 4 November was that there are plenty of opportunities for international service providers in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
While the number of work permits Papua New Guinea has issued to Pacific Islanders has quadrupled in the last ten years, Pacific workers still make up just one per cent of the total foreign work force in the Pacific’s largest economy. But that may be about to change.
Figures presented by the Investment Promotion Authority at the PNG Advantage Investment Summit show a ten-fold increase in investment from foreign companies in Papua New Guinea over the past decade.