Work on Lae’s Huon Industrial Park has been accelerated while stage two of the Lae Port development is on track to start by mid-2016, says Stanley Alphonse, the CEO of PNG Ports Corporation.
Industry sectors
A four-year A$ 1.7 million (K3.6 million) project has begun to map out how to revive Papua New Guinea’s dormant sea cucumber industry.
Some of the world’s best cacao is growing in Papua New Guinea and is being increasingly used in the high-end global chocolate market. Susan Gough Henly reports on why one Australian chocolate maker uses only PNG beans.
Declining oil prices have prompted a review of Oil Search’s activities, even as production hit record levels in 2015. Nevertheless, Papua New Guinea’s largest company says it is generating positive cash-flows and will be making a priority of future investment in the PNG LNG and Papua LNG gas projects.
In spite of a ‘challenging’ 2015 and tough market conditions, the latest Bank South Pacific analysis suggests that the ‘worst period may be over’ in Papua New Guinea. However, it is cautious about the prospects for the government’s planned US$1 billion ‘circuit breaker’ sovereign bond issue.
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 creation of a registry of personal assets to be used as loan security will boost the small business sector, according to Moses Liu, the Managing Director of the National Development Bank.
Claims by the international media, and one outlet in particular, about the conditions and communities along the Kokoda Track have threatened the reputation of the tourism and trekking industry in PNG, writes Genevieve Nelson, the CEO of the Kokoda Track Foundation.
Malaysia’s diversified Rimbunan Hijab Group is a major investor in Papua New Guinea. Managing Director James Lau talks to Business Advantage PNG about the company’s current construction projects, how its retail, agribusiness and forestry subsidiaries are performing, and the economic outlook for 2016.
An analysis of Papua New Guinea’s three main power grids has revealed that inadequate maintenance of plants and the transmission lines is the primary cause of frequent power outages, according to a review conducting by London-based consultants, Economic Consulting Associates. The review also comes with some recommendations.