To help in the country’s struggling economy, Australia and PNG have signed off a new $AUD140-million loan.
This is on top of the AUD$440 million dollars loan that Australia gave to PNG last year. Repayments have been suspended because of COVID-19.
According to PNG Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey, he met with Australia's High Commissioner to formalise the loan and that the funds will be used to repay government debts to PNG businesses.
"The focus of the Marape Government is to use this funding to pay off O'Neil's massive multi-billion debt to our businesses,” he said. "With these payments, we are injecting cash back into our local business that had been cash strapped.”
The deal comes in spite of the political challenges that the country is experiencing, where dozens of MPs have moved to the opposition. Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison was supposed to visit the country, but his trip was cancelled because of the ongoing political turmoil.
