Photo credit: International Trade and Investment Ministry of Papua New Guinea
Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru wants greater partnership between New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) and the Government. Minister Maru expressed this sentiment while giving the keynote address at the recent official opening of the new NBOPL headquarters in Kimbe, West New Britain Province on Thursday. Minister Maru encouraged NBPOL to keep the spirit of partnership with the Government to help the Government address development issues for mutual benefit. He encouraged partnership with NBOPL in the areas of addressing law and order, power generation, and further downstream processing of oil palm into finished high quality cooking oil for the domestic market.
“The National Government is ready to commit resources into the tax credit scheme to address law and order issues in West New Britain Province. All we need is the province and the company to partner and work together with to reduce crime in the province,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru added that downstream processing was also a key priority of the Marape-Rosso Government.
“We cannot continue to import cheap and unhealthy cooking oil when we have the resources and technology here. I strongly appeal to the Board and Management of NBPOL to refine the palm oil further into high quality cooking oil in Kimbe or in Lae. Let us go down this path and Government is ready to assist to make this a reality,” said Minister Maru.
“We also do not want any more importation of sugar. The Government provided a twenty-year infant industry protection to sugar in the hope to replace all imports, but we are still importing sugar. This cannot go on. The industry should be expanded by increasing out growers or planting more sugar- that is what the Government would like to see in our country,” added Minister Maru.
Minister Maru said he was grateful that NBPOL had developed a cattle industry.
“The Government is ready to partner NBPOL and locate savannah land for cattle industry. We cannot continue to import beef from Australia and New Zealand when we have the land to rear cattle and expand existing farms. The Government would also like to encourage NBPOL to look into the production of swine and chicken feed. We cannot continue to import feed for poultry and pig rearing,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru also encouraged the NBPOL Board and Chairman to be a lot more proactive as a responsible corporate citizen to find solutions on how they could assist with increasing their power to stop the frequent blackouts in Kimbe when the company has electricity supplied by its biogas plant.
“The country needs cheap and reliable power, and the Government is looking to partner with companies such as NBOPL. We have to find a way to solve this issue of constant power black outs for our mutual benefit. If it means to bring more private sector partners to invest in this space then let it be,” said Minister Maru.
“The world is in transition and biofuel will be the next big thing. Prices of palm oil will go up and countries like Indonesia are making decisions to go down that path in a big way. There is real opportunity for us to expand the industry here and look into biofuel,” said Minister Maru.
“We need to seriously look at partnership between NBPOL and the PNG Government. We need employment and technology; NBPOL have it all, they can be an important partner,” added Minister Maru.
Minister Maru thanked the Chairman and the Board of NBPOL for making the very important decision to bring its headquarters back to Kimbe.
“This signals to Government that NBPOL is here to stay and that it has a long-term commitment to the industry, the Government, and the people. Oil Palm is the most important industry in the agricultural sector and a K20 million investment is significant. On behalf of the National Government, I want to thank NBPOL for bringing back its headquarters to where it should be, in West New Britain Province,” said Minister Maru.
“The opening of this new office should signal the start of a new era of enhanced relationship with PNG, one that is based on partnership between both the National Government and the Provincial Government that host all the investments,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru added that NBPOL should think of the host provinces if it was planning to offload some of its shares.
“They (the host provinces) should be given equal rights to take up shares. They have the right to benefit from oil palm by being involved and having shares and benefiting from hosting the industry,” said Minister Maru.
“NBPOL must anchor its future on the back of a social license- make sure that the landowners are benefiting, and the hosting provinces are also benefiting,” added Minister Maru.
