Photo credit: PNG PM Media - Papua New Guinea's State Enterprises Minister, Sasindran Muthuvel (left), Prime Minister James Marape (centre) and the chairman of Fortescue Metals Group of Australia, Andrew Forrest, sign an agreement, Port Moresby, 1st September 2020.
PRIME Minister Hon. James Marape has once more defended the signing of the agreements with green energy developer Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), clarifying that the agreements are part of the process of meeting due diligence as the projects progressed from stage to stage.
While saying this, the Prime Minister cautioned Members of Parliament to be sensitive to potential investors in their “attack” on them on the Floor of Parliament, as, he said growing the country’s economy came on the back of foreign investment and this should be treated with a bipartisan approach by both sides of the House.
The Prime Minister was speaking recently in Parliament while answering questions raised by the Opposition Leader Belden Namah, who inferred the FFI hydro and geothermal projects with Dr. Andrew Forrest were “rushed”, asking if these have gone through due process, while questioning the credentials of this leading Australian investor.
PM Marape said Dr. Forrest was a very successful businessman, a global figure mining and now in the green energy space, likening him to Elon Musk – both of whom, the PM said, were frontier-breaking, research-based innovators.
He said of Namah’s assertions: “Just because we are pitching out with the investor does not mean that we have already agreed (in full). Due diligence has to take its course; the process of government will have to take its course.
“I want to assure the Opposition leader that there will not be a deal that we will rush into at the expense of our country’s security, sovereignty and economic gain. Our country is littered with too many experiences of things going wrong because of processes not being followed.
“I want to give this assurance – we will not rush into this because we have just signed an agreement. MOUs and MOAs are all part of the due process that will eventually be cleared by all our state entities, including the state lawyers to get the final product for business that is mutually beneficial to the investors and our country.
“I make one reference to Porgera as a case in point. When we sat to make a commercial agreement with Barrick, we out-laid to them our principles; and they subscribed to our principles. We did not compromise legacy issues. We would ensure that we have the greater project benefits to our country. And so the commercial negotiations were agreed upon; and then we went into the due processes – for instance the framework agreement signed, then the commencement agreement signed, and then subsidiary to the commencement agreement, there will be joint venture company agreement set up.
“So at every stage of the process, all instrumentalities of government are put in place…and there are opportunities for review,” said the Prime Minister.
To Namah’s question on why the signing took place in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said this happened as a part of the United Nations climate summit (COP26) events because of the nature of the summit and global consciousness to move into environmentally friendly energy sources as advocated for through the summit.
PM Marape said Dr. Forrest’s intention to invest in PNG was based on his proposal, part of which was the aim to harvest some 25 gigawatts of power by turning these into green energy for both internal consumption and export.
“When you have proposal on foot to harvest 25 gigawatts of power from our hydro and geothermal potentials – that’s about five or six PNGLNGs in one basket; it is a concept worth looking at.”
The Prime Minister said his Government was not time-bound by elections and years in office so that because of the elections, it cannot take on these sorts of projects and progress them.
“When we took government, we said we will deliver as many projects as possible to ensure direct foreign investments into the country.”
He said for the FFI agreement was not only for Purari but for the whole Purari River basin and systems just as it was for geothermal potential covering selected sites in West New Britain.
Article courtesy of PM James Marape News Page
