Photo: Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape
Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape has urged the country and its people to aspire to be more productive. In his diligence in aiming for the country to achieve economic independence, Prime Minister Marape has forged new ties for trade and investment during his recent trips and also helped in consolidating relations between PNG and the countries he visited.
The meetings he had with these world leaders recently are an indication that these nations are important bilateral partners with Papua New Guinea. United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan are members of the G7 economies. The meeting with their heads of government means these leaders acknowledge that PNG has a lot to offer in trade and commerce.
“We must start something or start to grow something, Every Papua New Guinean must have a purpose or motive for oneness, growth and prosperity. We must return to our land and sea and toil and harvest them because there is so much potential there, the markets in the United States are endless for us the people of the ‘blue pacific’ from agriculture to forestry, from fisheries to tourism” he said.
He urged that the creation of the new ministries reveals greater focus of the government in agriculture and the respective ministries should not snail its way to making things work in these sectors but move hastily with astute and positive governmental interventions. It has been two months now since the creation of these portfolios and by now we should know where to start and move ahead from our state agencies. It is now up to our Ministers, departments, sectors and our people to work to speed up, and move forward domestic productions going into the future.
The Prime Minister reflected on his trip and said, “I am burning the midnight oil, travelling non-stop with little sleep in between because I want to make these connections, these opportunities must never be wasted.”
PM Marape continued by reiterating the same thoughts he expressed to the United Nations “The world needs food, Energy, water and tourism sites for rest and recreation. We have them in PNG, we just have to rise up and work; the market is there, we must create a secure and orderly environment and go into production”.
“It is also good to note that our starting point in 2022 is not horribly bad; that the worst of the economic recession that has hit us is now behind us although inflation is hitting us hard as it is doing too many economies around the world” he said.
Under the Marape-administration, the economy of the country has surged to K109 billion (World Bank Prediction) by the end of this year 2022. The previous Government grew the economy by K35 billion from 2010 to 2018 under eight years. The Marape led Government grew the economy under three years by K30 billion by getting concessional loans at cheaper rates and spending it domestically during the Covid-19 period pandemic.
The Prime Minister also welcomed the latest World Bank report on PNG, which has shown that the Governments economic reform program is delivering on its promise on better times ahead.
“The biggest beneficiaries of these improvements will be the people in rural areas working in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and all its associated sectors.”
“The projection is clear, management of the economy is better, the government will continue to tighten expenditure and domestic spending while restructuring our state of affairs on real money making sectors in the agricultural space and let our people feel the benefits” he said.
