Negotiations between Twinza Oil Ltd and the Papua New Guinea government are likely to proceed, according to an economist, but refusing to change conditions at the last minute sends a disappointing message to international investors. Marcel Schroder, an economist with the Asian Development Bank's macroeconomic analysis division, was referring to the gov...

Treasurer Ian Ling Stuckey told Parliament that K5.7 billion was spent as part of an economic recovery plan on "the economic battle." He explained that the money was not solely spending on COVID-19 and that the government had invested K2.5 billion in COVID-19 bonds and K1.5 billion in friendly international assistance. Mr Ling-Stuckey said K600 mill...

A government official is worried that the country will suffer significant consequences as a result of the foreign trade restrictions. The decline in domestic demand, according to acting chief trade officer Richard Yakam, has already been felt. Yakam praised the government for announcing the reopening of the Porgera mine but added that the other majo...

Passengers leaving internationally on Air Niugini will now be expected to take a 45-minute COVID-19 test prior to check-in. The airline said in a statement that the new provision, which went into effect recently would affect all passengers flying to Australia, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, and all other foreign destinations served by Air Niu...

To combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey is exploring additional funding for small and medium businesses. “This latest and very severe wave of COVID-19 is having very serious impacts across all of Papua New Guinean society,” he said. “We are not only fighting it to save precious lives, but we are also trying...

Minister Michael Nali said the Department of Works is managing 250 existing contracts worth K4 billion, but that budget is insufficient to see all of them through to completion. He said this number comes from workers hired by the government, but it may be higher. He was speaking at a road opening in Lae last week. “That number of contractors is wort...

Commodity prices are expected to remain low leading to large losses of exports for Papua New Guinea further adding to a dim global and domestic scenario amid a second wave of the covid-19 pandemic. This is despite the fact, commodity prices for PNG’s exports recovered in the third quarter of 2020 in response to an acceleration of industry activity glob...

More and more women are venturing into fields predominantly held by men as PNG’s formal economy grows, hence increasing the need to widen the safety lens and address aspects of women’s safety that have typically received very little attention. The Gender Smart Safety (GSS) training program offered by the Business Coalition for Women (BCFW), is an innovati...

At its General Meeting on April 15th in Port Moresby, Kina Securities Limited (KSL) shareholders unanimously voted in favour of Kina Bank's takeover of Westpac PNG and Westpac Fiji. CEO Greg Pawson said in a statement that the shareholders' vote of confidence was "amazing." “We are very excited about this opportunity, and creating a stronger and mor...

PNG DataCo Data Center is on track to open next month, according to chief executive officer Paul Komboi. He said that the data centre's planning and physical work are over, but the technological and engineering work is still ongoing. A data centre is a set of components rather than a single thing. Servers, computing subsystems, networking switches, rou...

The economy will stay slow, according to NASFUND CEO Ian Tarutia, if the Wafi-Golpu project in Morobe and the P'nyang project in Western is further postponed. During an online employer conference, Tarutia said that the announcement of the Porgera mine reopening had given the superfund hope. “It is very positive news,” he said. “We want to see mem...

Ishmael Toroama, the President of Bougainville, argued that important industry markets are lacking in rewards. As a result, he wanted to amend the legislation to make industries like mining, fishing, irrigation, manufacturing, and tourism more attractive to investors. According to Toroama, rewriting the Inward Investment Act would greatly boost Boug...

Subprojects funded by the Asian Development Bank's multi-tranche funding facility loans for the Civil Aviation Development Investment Program (CADIP) advancement are on schedule to be completed within the facility's availability span. The multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) is one of the ADB's modalities for assisting clients with their medium to lo...

Prime Minister James Marape unveiled the Ihu special economic zone (Isez) in Kikori, Gulf, as part of the district's other impact projects. Soroi Eoe, Kikori MP and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, Michael Nali, Works Minister Michael Nali with his department secretary David Wereh, William Samb, Central Governor Robert Agarobe, and Gulf Governor Chr...

The Internal Revenue Commission's (IRC) Commissioner General, Sam Koim, said that the IRC will advise the government on lowering the Salaries and Wages Tax (SWT) if they raise enough revenue through the successful collection, especially through the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Koim said that they would make the recommendation until the National Govern...

According to the Bank of PNG's (BPNG) jobs index, structured private sector employment fell by 5.5 per cent in the September quarter of 2020, relative to a 1.3 per cent growth in the June quarter of 2020. This was recently illustrated in BPNG's quarterly economic bulletin for the September quarter. BPNG Governor Loi Bakani said that jobs dropped by ...