The National Fisheries Authority seeks to develop infrastructure in order to grow PNG's fishing industry.
According to NFA managing director John Kasu, the company has already submitted a 10-year strategic plan to the National Executive Council, which will be unveiled in April in Parliament to lay the groundwork for the fishing industry's future.
“Our aim is to build proper infrastructures such as ports and jetties and when we have proper infrastructures it will attract more investors and that will bring the cost of doing business down,” he said.
Kasu claims that doing business in the country is costly and that most fisheries factories aren't running at full capacity.
Currently, factories are producing about 30% because they are not receiving enough fish to process, and the NFA aims to raise that production to 80 or 90%.
“Our outlook for 2021 is to start work on building the important fisheries infrastructure project such as the Wagang Fisheries Port project in Lae and other major fisheries ports,” he said. “We will be also working on other projects such as the Tuna terminal project in Rabaul and also small jetties throughout the coastal areas in the country.”
NFA, he said, would look at downstream manufacturing to ensure that they can increase output as well. When they increase demand, more fish would be available to the factories, allowing them to operate at maximum capacity.
Kasu clarified that, unlike other industries, the NFA has been largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic since most of their fishing vassals operate offshore and the NFA has a large offshore presence.
