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The Treasurer is about to present the 2014 Budget to Parliament, after a challenging year for Papua New Guinea and its government. Paul Barker looks at what next year’s Budget should contain.

Lae-based Frabelle Fishing Corporation is one of the major partners behind the Majestic Seafood venture, which opened earlier this year. But, as Frabelle’s James Johnston tells Business Advantage PNG, the company has big expansion plans of its own too.

Anyone regularly attending functions in Port Moresby will soon come across the work of event production company Blue7Team. Business Advantage PNG speaks with co-founder Naraai Banam on the challenges of running a leading services business in Papua New Guinea.

The entry of PanAust—a new player in PNG’s mining sector—is good news for the giant Frieda River gold and copper mining project in East Sepik Province. The move has also been welcomed by analysts.

Recruitment agencies servicing Papua New Guinea say the employment of expatriates has fallen over the past year. However, as our survey of the sector suggests, there is optimism about all employment in 2014, as new ventures come on stream to replace the giant PNG LNG project.

Trade Minister, Richard Maru, has amended Papua New Guinea’s takeover code, introducing a new national interest test for anyone acquiring shares in PNG companies. The law firms who represented Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad in its recent failed bid for New Britain Palm Oil say the lack of definition about what is ‘the national interest’ will discourage foreign investment in PNG and PNG companies.

With money finally in the bank and an experienced hand at the helm, are the fortunes of PNG’s troubled mobile phone company Bemobile about to turn? Business Advantage PNG spoke with Sundar Ramamurthy – who last week became its ninth CEO and its fourth in a year – to find out.

The great untapped investment area in Papua New Guinea is infrastructure, according to Syd Yates, ‎Executive Director of investment fund Kina Asset Management Limited (KAML).

While its bullish prediction of US$23 billion in export earnings for Papua New Guinea by 2030 may have garnered the headlines, there’s a lot more to ANZ’s ‘Bold Thinking: Imagining PNG in the Asian Century’ report, released this week.

Even if the PNG Government puts up its share of the funds for the Solwara I, as Nautilus Minerals’ CEO expects, it will be at least two to three years before the company can begin its deep sea mining operation in the Bismarck Sea.