PNG to compete for foreign investments, says Maru

MINISTER for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru says PNG is going to now compete with countries like China, Philippines, Thailand and other countries to attract foreign investments.

Speaking during the recent SME Awards event, Mr Maru said the government is going to do so through providing incentives through special economic zones (SEZ).

“We are offering incentives through the Special Economic Zone agenda of government to encourage more investors to come and process and grow exports within Papua New Guinea. That is the plan,” Mr Maru said.

“We are now offering incentives. We are going to compete with Philippines. We are going to compete with Thailand. We are going to compete with China.

“Last week, I was in Manila. I saw two boats arriving with PNG flags. I was at the wharf, and I saw them arriving.

“What were they carrying? Fish. Unprocessed raw fish from Papua New Guinea. And they were offloading them to Filipino canneries to process.

“It’s not right.

“We should be processing it in Papua New Guinea, building canneries here. One cannery will produce 5,000 jobs and a lot of spin-off businesses for our SMEs.

“That’s why I’m always against raw materials leaving this country.

“We need to grow the SMEs sector.

“We’ll grow it when we create demand for SME goods and services.

“Every time we move fish out, we’re losing 5,000 jobs, 10,000 jobs, millions and millions of kina, and billions of kina worth of monies that should end up in our SMEs.”

Mr Maru said the role of government is now to: “Support industries, give incentives so they can come and process all our raw materials in the country, thereby creating revenue opportunities for our SMEs to grow. So that’s our role, and we will continue to push that.

“We have started, and we will continue to do that.”

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