There are untapped mutual gains and opportunities in strengthening the bilateral trade and investment relationship with the United Kingdom (UK), says the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru. Minister Maru said this during his bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart, Hon. Nigel Huddleston at the margins of the recently concluded Commonwealth Trade Ministers meeting in London recently.
Both Ministers agreed on the importance of the bilateral trade relationship and building a two-way trade and investment.
“UK has very little investment in Papua New Guinea (PNG) compared to the post-independence era where there were a few notable businesses operating in PNG. We need to change that especially after the signing of the UK- Pacific Trade Agreement in 2019. This agreement must be put in operation and PNG has offered to host the first trade committee meeting before the end of this year,” said Minister Maru.
“PNG currently exports most of its oil palm to the UK with some coffee and other commodities in negligible volumes. We need to bring the UK back into PNG and expand the current trade and investment relationship to include new areas such as investments in energy, petroleum refining, and commercial agriculture,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru added that beside trade and investment, strengthening people to people links especially through partnerships between educational institutions was an area that PNG was keen on exploring.
“The UK education system is one of the best in the world with many foreign students flocking to UK. I hope for PNG to partner a UK institution to increase the number of spaces for students from PNG to gain a tertiary education,” said Minister Maru.
