PM O'Neill at APEC CEO Summit

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has provided more than 1,000 Asia-Pacific CEOs and leading businesspeople with greater insight to business and investment potential of Papua New Guinea. 
Participating in a panel discussion at the APEC CEO Summit in Beijing this week,  O'Neill focused on the fundamentals of PNG's development as indicators of long-term economic growth and stability.  These include education, healthcare and infrastructure development, and were discussed in the context of the APEC CEO Summit session topic of "Inclusive Growth."
O'Neill said one of the main approaches the PNG Government  was focusing on was ensuring education became compulsory for all school-aged children from Grade 1 to 12.
"Having access to decent education is one key area that strengthens our community and our economy," he told with delegates.
"Higher literacy rates is an outcome of proper education and enables people to further acquire better skills and get better jobs.
"As part of our focus on these core areas, we are also ensuring that government resources, especially funding, is delivered directly to local communities."
He said for the first time in the country's history, national government funds wrrr being delivered directly to the district and community level, which were aimed at providing basic services that support education, health, law and order and infrastructure locally.
O'Neill informed delegates that for the medium term, Papua New Guinea's economy would reach double-digit growth in 2015.
"This will again enable us to further distribute more services to our local communities," he said.
O'Neill  also made the point that there were a number of similarities between PNG's development and the experiences of partner countries, and that all nations could learn form each other.
"We are learning from internal migration experience especially from countries like China, India and many others in the region. 
"We are also looking at experiences in these countries where small businesses have grown to become large companies, resulting in the improvement of living standards for themselves as well as their community."
O'Neill said this was knowledge and experience that was shared between government and businesses from around the region through participation in forums such as the APEC CEO Summit.