The latest feasibility study of the proposed Wafi-Golpu copper and gold project confirms ‘a robust investment case-one which supports proceeding with the project’, says joint venture partner.
Industry sectors
The Chief Executive of the Papua New Guinea Forest Industries Association, Bob Tate, claims that PNG’s forestry sector is coming under increasing pressure. He points to a drop in demand from China, lower foreign capital investment and moves by the PNG government to lift industry turnover taxes.
Waste conversion company Landfill Energies is proposing to construct a plant in Port Moresby to turn municipal solid waste into electricity and diesel fuel. The company says it has a contract with PNG Power to provide electricity and intends to commence in early 2017.
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.
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.