The Papua New Guinea Government plans to have a trade representative located in Jakarta from next year, as it seeks to boost trade and business links with neighbouring Indonesia.
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Australia’s aid program will increase by 10 per cent or about A$500 million in the 2013-14 budget to a record AUD$5.7 billion—the equivalent of 0.37 per cent of gross national income (GNI).
Although gross domestic product (GDP) growth halved last year in the Solomon Islands, the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands’ (CBSI) 2012 annual report, released last week, makes encouraging reading.
Akamai’s quarterly The State of the Internet study has become a valued measure of the proliferation of the worldwide web over the past five years. Its latest edition, covering the last quarter of 2012, was released last week.
Mobile phone competition in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is about to get tougher, after a deal which will see about US$250m (K550 million) in new funding for PNG’s second carrier, BeMobile, which will see it relaunched as Vodafone BeMobile.
Papua New Guinea’s gross domestic product is set to increase by 5.5% in 2013, according to the Asian Development Bank’s latest Pacific Economic Monitor, released last week. This is compared to growth of 9.2% in 2012.
The four-year feasibility study on Solomon Islands’ Tina River hydro dam project on Guadalcanal Island is nearing completion and a final report will go to government in September this year.
Economic growth in Solomon Islands is expected to rise at a moderate four to five percent this year, a little lower than the 5.5% growth rate in 2012.
A small nation with vast reserves of natural resources… sustained and stellar GDP growth despite a challenging operating environment… tension between foreign investors and those in the local population who believe their birthright is being sold off too cheaply… a copper and gold mine large enough to contribute a third of the nation’s GDP.
With a new investment guide just published on New Caledonia, we find out what is happening in Papua New Guinea’s French-speaking Melanesian neighbour.