Three years ago, ‘Airport Economist’ Tim Harcourt came to Papua New Guinea to see how it was coping after the global financial crisis. In this excerpt from his forthcoming book, Trading Places – The Airport Economist’s Guide to International Business, he reflects on what he found.
Paul Barker, the Director of the Institute of National Affairs, reviews the 2013 National Development Forum, organised by the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC). The national forum is the culmination of four regional forums held over the past six months. This year’s focus was on revitalising services at the District level across Papua New Guinea.
The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the fastest growing region in the world for business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce, according to research released by New York-based market research company eMarketer.
A curious thing has been happening in the Pacific. Instead of running trade and investment road-shows in Australia, New Zealand or China, two Pacific Island countries have been courting investment from each other, observes Jenny Hayward-Jones.
From a Papua New Guinea perspective, the most striking thing about attending Australia’s major annual media and marketing conference last week was the irrelevance of so much of the content, writes Robert Hamilton-Jones.
Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program Limited has been under heavy political pressure to relinquish is majority ownership of PNG’s largest mine, Ok Tedi. In this speech, delivered at the announcement of the company’s 2012 annual report this week, PNGSDP Chairman Sir Mekere Morauta appears to concede the loss of Ok Tedi, arguing for a sale on fair terms, and ponders both the future of PNG’s largest mine, and his own organisation.
Dr Genevieve Nelson, Executive Director of the Kokoda Track Foundation outlines program which is encouraging young Papua New Guineans to consider themselves as leaders.
Paul Barker argues for a far greater emphasis on Papua New Guinea’s largest most widespread economic activity—agriculture.
Law and order is back on the agenda, with this week’s National Haus Krai on violence against women, Australia reactivating its assistance to the PNG’s police and the Government committing itself to heavier punishments for some key offences. But solving PNG’s law and order problems will require much more, says Alan McLay.
Commercial lawyer Steven Kami says PNG’s superannuation and life insurance sectors are worried about the effect of the new prudential standards on corporate governance, and in particular the effect on eligible directors.