Papua New Guinea’s agricultural sector is the backbone of the economy and a substantial contributor to national income, Steve Woodhouse, host of EMTV’s ‘Farming PNG’ program, tells Business Advantage PNG. He calls for changes to the regulatory bodies.
Papua New Guinea’s largest retailer is still only servicing about 30 per cent of Papua New Guineans, according to Chairman of CPL Group, Mahesh Patel. While it has product and store expansion plans, Patel says CPL is waiting on a general economic recovery before moving forward.
Highlands Pacific is expanding its focus from large projects and exploration, to controlling interests in smaller projects offering near term returns. Highlands Pacific Managing Director, Craig Lennon, tells Business Advantage PNG it is a response to market changes.
The Papua New Guinea economy is gradually stabilising as it adjusts to the impact of the PNG LNG project, according to the Bank of PNG’s latest Monetary Policy Statement. Real economic growth is predicted to be 2.8 per cent, the kina has been steady, and the 2016 balance of payments was in surplus. But there are financial stresses, as David James reports.
Commodity prices were reasonably stable over the month and precious metals strengthened. But the weakness in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) prices continued. Business Advantage PNG’s monthly review of Papua New Guinea commodity and financial markets.
The Solomon Islands has great potential as a tourism destination, but there are obstacles to be overcome. In the second of a two part series, Business Advantage PNG looks at the opportunities and challenges, including in the hotel business.
The lack of availability of foreign exchange is creating imbalances within the Papua New Guinea financial system, according to a report by Kina Securities. It says there is a build up of liquidity in kina, which may have implications for the financial strategies of domestic companies.
The first of 500 cows arrive in Papua New Guinea from New Zealand this week, (25 May) as a commercial-scale dairy industry gets closer to production in Central Province. And the CEO of Innovative Agriculture Industries, Ilan Weiss, says milk products will be on local supermarket shelves by October.
Kumul Telikom Chairman Mahesh Patel says the Papua New Guinea telco is close to rolling out its 4G services. He tells ‘Business Advantage Boardroom’, which aired on national broadcaster EMTV, that the merger of bmobile, DataCo and Telikom PNG is necessary to make the state- owned enterprise efficient and manage the technological challenges.
The economic risks faced by the three main commercial banks in Papua New Guinea are very high, says ratings agency S&P Global Ratings. But Associate Director Andrew Mayes tells Business Advantage PNG, credit risk is ‘well-managed’.