Photo: Major Richard Elizah from the PNG Defence Force (left) receives Commissioner General’s Certificate of Excellence from Ambassador Joshua Kalinoe, who officiated at the PNG Expo2020 Pavilion Closing Dinner on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Hon. Soroi Eoe. Major Elizah is seconded from the PNGDF as Logistics Manager for Dubai Expo team.
The PNG Commissioner General for Expo2020 and Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, His Excellency, Mr. Joshua Kalinoe has described Papua New Guinea’s participation in the Dubai Expo2020 as the “journey of success”.
He was officiating on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Hon. Sori Eoe at the Pavilion Closing Dinner he hosted to thank all the pavilion, staff, partners, stakeholders and the PNG community in Dubai, at the Pullman hotel on Monday 27 March. Minister Eoe was unable to attend due to other urgent commitments.
Ambassador Kalinoe, said that the staff of the pavilion, led by the Deputy Commissioner General Mrs Jacinta-Warakai Manua, have done their country proud.
“The staff has lived up to the expectation of their people and country as they worked very long hours, 24-seven, not only in pavilion duties but also planning and executing trade and investment events during the expo led thematic weeks.
“Papua New Guinea was one of the countries that actively participated in expo led programmes within the context of the pavilion’s strategic participation framework that was approved for implementation by the Marape Cabinet, “ Ambassador Kalinoe said.
He said for most of the long term pavilion staff, days and months have been going so fast as if it was like a few weeks away when they first arrived on the shores of the United Arab Emirates and sadly the time has come for them to leave.
“Apart from speaking to thousands of people going through Pavilion from the four corners of the World, the Pavilion staff also made friends with individuals and colleagues from both the Pacific Islands region, and other parts of the World. Expo2020 was a truly, one world-village experience,” he said.
He said by attending to events organized by the Expo2020 Secretariat and other pavilions, we have learnt, listened and shared from each others’ experience and innovations.
“For PNG, this experience has opened up visibility and created new opportunities for trade, investment and innovations that we would accommodate into our mix of variables in Living in Balance with Nature, the catch word we used throughout the Pavilion’s organized programmes,” Ambassador told the audience.
He said, like the other Pacific Islands states, we are an island nation sharing the vast Pacific Ocean. The Blue Economy is also important for us. In Expo 2020 however, PNG focused on the Green Economy because the Island of New Guinea host the third largest rainforest in the World, of which PNG has the largest share.
He said through Expo2020, we have told the world of our efforts to protect this international asset through our two-part Roundtable discussions and several business forums where the forest, tourism and agricultural resources the country is so blessed with are sustainably utilized. This means living in balance with Nature.
He said the two roundtable discussions on Living in Balance with Nature have resulted in a very positive response from Europe, North America, Asia and the United Arab Emirates. Ideas on the sustainable use of the forest through science, research and innovation where exchanged and positive outcomes were concluded, including the following;
- MOU was signed between a PNG Forest Concession Holder Company and a North American Environment Management Company for Carbon Trade partnership.
- A coalition of international academics formed to carry out scientific research into the forest biodiversity, agriculture and other economic use of the land and natural resources, including in hydrogen gas conversion and production as well as block chain and crypto currency trade.
- Establishment of a private equity venture capital Sustainable Development fund.
“During the Agriculture thematic week the Pavilion signed a Letter Of Intent (LOI) with the Dubai Multi-commodities Centre (DMCC) for trade in agriculture and mineral products and discussions a ongoing with a Abu Dhabi based company for similar partnership arrangements.
“The PNG-DMCC partnership has in fact started with the launch of the PNG-DMCC coffee brand last month where PNG Coffee beans are brewed and packed at the DMCC Coffee Centre in Dubai and distributed through the DMCC marketing system.” Ambassador Kalinoe said.
He said in April, we will take the post Expo journey to Abu Dhabi were a B2B and G2B networking dialogue will be staged and it is hoped that more LOIs will be signed from the Expression of Interests that the Pavilion has received to date.
Because PNG is not well known throughout the World, we also used the Pavilion Journey to create visibility. Click Media, a Dubai based media platform partnered with us and the PNG Pavilion story has been told throughout the Arab World and parts of Europe, Asia, North America
While the Pavilion journey will stop at midnight on 31 March, the journey to connect the World and keep alive some of the outcomes and connections using the Dubai and UAE experience will continue. Through the pavilion journey we have learnt that the UAE is truly a springboard for PNG to jump from to access opportunities in the East, West, North and the South.
The pavilion staff were also presented with the Certificates of Participation, The Commissioner General’s Special Award of Commendation was presented to Mrs Jacinta Warakai-Manua, Ms Daure Kiromat, Ms Emily Lopili, Major Richard Elizah Ms Pauline Raman and Ms Nerolyn Kuamugl.
