The internal revenue sup-porting Bougainville’s recurrent and development budgets is only at 7 percent and must be raised to over 50 percent to adequately support the Special Re-gion’s autonomous restructure aspirations.
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape revealed this recently (11.12.24) in Sydney dur-ing the PNG Investment Week as he asked for greater collaboration with inves-tors to boost Bougainville’s economy.
“Bougainville needs to be economically strong,” PM Marape said as he gave a rundown on the peace process, including the referendum of 2019 and cur-rent efforts by his government toward processing referendum results in the PNG Parliament.
“Any investors willing to take up residency in Bougainville, whether in partner-ship or individually, you are all most welcome. Waigani will not stand in the way.”
He said the PNG Government greatly welcomes investments in Bougainville as part of its efforts to empower Bougainville and the Autonomous Bougainville Government to manage its budget and economy.
“We must start with economic independence as the fundamental tool to grow Bougainville; that once it has the money, it can sustain any endeavour into the future.
“At the moment, Bougainville’s internal revenue is only 7 percent of the total recurrent and development budget. This is not sufficient for Bougainville to get up and get going. We need to raise this revenue at the earliest to about 50 percent.”
As part of the Marape-Rosso Government’s move to financially strengthen the autonomous region, Government is transferring all its shares held in Bougainville Copper Limited to the ABG, with Prime Minister Marape saying further that, under the revenue-sharing arrangements, he is considering Bougainville keeps all revenues raised in the mine.
“We are also looking into this model to economically empower them further. This will take time, but it starts with these sorts of engagements so I welcome any investors out there. Bougainville is open for business.”
As part of his advocacy for investments in Bougainville, the Prime Minister high-lighted the strength of the Bougainville people and the leading position the former province took in the country at that time.
“Before the crisis, Bougainville was the leading province in Papua New Guinea. Bougainvilleans are very resilient, innovative, and self-sustaining people. Bou-gainville’s strength was not just in Panguna mine; there were many other re-sources, including probably the biggest coconut plantation in the Southern Hemisphere.
“There is now a need for greater collaboration to resuscitate Bougainville’s economy and I welcome investors to his special region of ours,” said Prime Min-ister Marape.
