Photo credit: PNG Office of the Prime Minister Facebook Page
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape announced recently (Wednesday, January 25, 2023) that Papua New Guinea will host the World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) in October this year, 2023.
The WIBF is a forum where indigenous people from all over the world like the New Zealand Maoris, American Indians and Australian Aborigines converge for face-to-face conversations, envisioning, shared learning, mutual opportunity, investment possibilities and a social and economic purpose. It is a forum that specifically promotes indigenous businesses from all around the world. WIBF provides a platform for exchange of ideas, creation of partnerships and bringing investment to communities, entrepreneurs, and organisations.
“I am happy to announce that the National Executive Council has approved for Papua New Guinea to host and co-fund WIBF this year. This will be the biggest event that we will host as a country after APEC 2018,” PM Marape said,
“We have been supporting our local SMEs as a core policy of this Government and hosting of this event will not only highlight our support for the world indigenous business, but it will also provide an opportunity for our local business to build international networks, create partnerships and also look for markets among all the countries that will attend the forum. Our local entrepreneurs and SMEs will have the opportunity to showcase their products, share experiences, best practices and inspiration from successful businesses across the globe.
“We want to use the opportunity to promote Papua New Guinea as an investment destination, a tourist destination, as a safe place to do business, open up opportunities for us to build networks to find export markets for our products to the world, and also help us to encourage indigenous businesses from all around the world to come and invest in PNG.”
Over 600 indigenous businesses from all over the world and at least 400 indigenous Papua New Guinean businesses are expected to be part of WIBF 2023.
“My Government plans to have a big indigenous business expo to run concurrently with the WIBF so that our indigenous businesses in Papua New Guinea can use the opportunity to promote their indigenous goods and services to the world. Our delegates to this forum will only be indigenous Papua New Guineans as that is the nature of WIBF. We expect this forum to also bring in up to K10 million into the country,” PM Marape said.
The Ministry for International Trade & Investment will be the lead partner and a National Steering Committee that will be chaired by Vice-Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Kessy Sawang, will be set up. The committee will comprise of relevant Government agencies and private sector including Tourism Promotion Authority, Department of Agriculture, Department of Foreign Affairs, Cocoa Board, Coffee Industry Corporation, SME Corporation and MSME Council.
“I call on all our indigenous SMEs and large companies to prepare well and take full advantage of this one-off opportunity to market your products and services and our country to the delegations from around the world who will be coming to attend this forum. You must also canvas new business opportunities and forge partnerships to grow your businesses with new indigenous partners from around the world,” PM Marape said.
