New CEO at Telikom PNG, two new board members at IPBC, a resignation at PNG Power, a new council president, and Leighton’s chairman to retire.
Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council
There’s a new Liberal-National Coalition government in Canberra, led by Tony Abbott. Jenny Hayward-Jones considers the implications for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is adamant that businesses on Manus Island ‘will directly benefit’ from the asylum-seeker deal signed last week by himself and Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd. But some business leaders are sceptical.
The signing of the Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea has changed the nature of the bilateral relationship, says the Lowy Institute’s Jenny Hayward-Jones.
Closer economic engagement with Far North Queensland, law and order, and health will be on the agenda when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visits Papua New Guinea today. Rudd will be the second Australian Prime Minister to visit PNG in the past two months, following former PM Julia Gillard’s visit in May.
Papua New Guinea citizens can now apply for visas to visit Australia online, part of a slow but steady improvement in immigration procedures between the two countries.
Australia’s aid program will increase by 10 per cent or about A$500 million in the 2013-14 budget to a record AUD$5.7 billion—the equivalent of 0.37 per cent of gross national income (GNI).
Australian government announcement raises hopes of reducing PNG red tape