Photo credit: National Fisheries Authority
The PNG Fisheries Strategic Plan 2021-2030 was recently approved by the National Executive Council for the next ten years.
It lays out the Strategic Road Map and Vision for an internationally dynamic, equitable, and sustainable broad-based fisheries market and industry.
PNG Fisheries Strategic Plan 2021-2030, according to Prime Minister Hon. James Marape, MP, has implemented and matched its sustainability and growth plans to the Government's policy guidelines, Vision 2050, PNG Development Strategic Plan 2010-2030, and the Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP).
“The Plan is intent on taking PNG’s fisheries sector forward by improving the status quo to a state where it will resonate with the Government’s high-level strategic agenda to ‘Take Back PNG’ and to specifically respond to our shared vision to realize equitable benefits for our people.
“The evolution of such policy directions over the last 12 months has culminated to two high-level strategic pieces of work at hand. These are the project on creating a Fisheries Commercial Entity to be responsible for the Government’s commercial interests as approved by Cabinet and the National Fisheries Board decision to formulate a 10-year Fisheries Strategic Plan,” said Prime Minister Marape.
He said that transitioning the fisheries sector from an artisanal and informal to a commercial state, one that provides formal jobs and cash income earning opportunities for people, has been extremely difficult. This is because fish and aquatic resources, which live in oceans that stretch through international waters, are affected by natural phenomena such as tides, which affect their migratory behaviour. This is especially true of the tuna stock, which cannot be domesticated in Papua New Guinean waters.
The NEC, according to Prime Minister Marape, has also acknowledged that supply dynamics in the tuna stock have necessitated regional countries entering into governance regimes that require all of them to handle moving stock across their borders independently.
“Commercialization and strategy together with sustainable management of the fishery resources going forward will be necessities and requirements to take into consideration under such regional interdependent considerations,” Prime Minister Marape said.
As a result, the strategic plan is PNG's response to these regional and national growth concerns. For this Government and their people, putting in place the fundamental structural building blocks, with a strong balance of policy prescriptions and encouraging political measures, is a must in the domestic economy of the country.
As a solution to the emerging threats, the National Fisheries Board and the National Fisheries Authority have been working on developing a conceptual road map over the last few months.
“Therefore, the 10-year Fisheries Strategic Plan is aimed at guiding the Government’s development intentions for the sector to invest smartly to awaken and consolidate the latent commercial and socially inclusive potential of the fisheries sector, whilst at the same time, position the State’s body, the National Fisheries Authority to purposefully perform its mandated functions in overseeing the governance and management of the development of the sector going forward,” said Prime Minister Marape.
The strategic plan was developed through a consultative process with provinces and stakeholders, who examined the industry's success over the previous two decades and established the major roadblocks to development. It suggests a growth path map take advantage of the prospects.
It also recommends a set of strategic supporting measures aimed at repositioning the industry to not only adapt to the Government's vision, but also to consolidate the industry's diverse operating infrastructure in order to grow the sector into a large, broad-based, diversified, and value-adding industry that is globally competitive and domestically inclusive.
Reference:
Papua New Guinea Press Release (18 February 2021). “NEC Endorses National Strategic Plan 2021-2030”.
