Prime Minister Hon. James Marape recently stated that Papua New Guinea spends a massive K2 billion-plus on importing food every year, some of which can be easily grown and produced in the country. He said this when announcing that the two major focuses of his government were internal security and growing the economy.
“More control of the prevailing law-and-order situation will lead to increased business, especially in agriculture, to bring down the country’s huge food import bill,” PM Marape said.
He said it would also lead to more benefits from the mining and petroleum sectors.
“I’m very strong in my push for development of our sustainable natural resources like agriculture, forestry and fisheries. We want to ramp up production in these sectors and get more of our people, 80 per cent of whom are involved with land and sea, to migrate from subsistent into the cash economy" PM Marape said.
“My government already has in place price support and freight subsidy mechanisms for agriculture, and partnerships with major banks and lending agencies for support to our SMEs, to ensure that our citizens are active participants in the economy.
“Therein lies the greatest potential and my government is putting money where our mouth is.
“Agriculture will be our major export earner going forward and will also replace food imports. At the moment, we are spending more than K2 billion on food imports alone, which is not good enough for a country with massive land which can be used for agriculture” he said.
PM Marape also looks forward to more benefits to the country from the extractive industries,
“We will be working to ensure that Porgera Mine reopens at the earliest. Papua and P’nyang LNG projects are both progressing well and should soon move into Final Investment Decision (FID), with construction to run from 2023 to 2032. We also will be working to ensure that Wafi-Golpu, Pasca, Pandora, Frieda River and various other projects progress” the PM said.
