Prime Minister James Marape has confirmed changes are coming to the country’s regulatory and fiscal regimes for the mining and petroleum industries, but also assured businessmen that Papua New Guinea would honor all its commitments under the law and the industry would be consulted closely for any changes.
Speaking in a webinar organized by the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, Marape underscored that the mining and petroleum sector “remains our number one economic sector in our country and that is acknowledged and that will remain so.”
“The government acknowledges the important contribution the mining and petroleum sector provides to the country and to the economy. Without this sector, our country would be far behind in terms of our economic performance and in terms of service delivery by the government to our people,” he said.
Following recent disruptive moves to increase local participation in the Porgera gold mine and government-induced delays to gas projects, he also moved to reassure the industry that his government was still in favour of foreign investment in the sector.
Under the theme ‘Resource Industry – Making It Work for PNG’ the PNG CMP webinars have consistently tried to establish a shared credible public platform to meaningfully discuss the sustainability of the country’s resources sector.
Marape agreed with this and said: “My advocacy has sometimes been misconstrued. We’re not in the business of scaring our foreign investors. We’re in the business of working with them to maximise revenues for our country: from tax, rents, rates, or from the many businesses that stem from our projects.”
Any current mining projects would be protected from future changes to the country’s mining laws, the PM said to reassure miners.
“Any current mining development contract will run its full course because they were executed under the current [legislative] regime,”
Marape said. ‘We are a robust country, a democratic country and a country that respects the rule of law. We will honour agreements we have signed with our investors and give ample signal to our investors of any changes.”
The premier noted that 2025, or the 50th year of PNG’s independence, would be the crucial year when these changes would take place.
