EU gives PNG tuna 'special treatment'

Locally-processed products to enter markets free of duty and quota

 

By PATRICK TALU

 

PAPUA New Guinea has become the only country in the world to be granted a “special treatment” by the European Union (EU) for its tuna export products, The National reports.

This means that fishery products from whatever origin but processed in PNG have been allowed to enter the EU markets duty-free and quota-free.

At present, PNG-processed tuna products enter the EU markets in the form of canned fish produced by pioneering cannery RD Tuna Corp.

The EU parliament in Brussels endorsed the special treatment under the EU-Pacific interim economic partnership agreement granted “consent” to the deal.

A statement yesterday by the delegation of the EU to PNG in Port Moresby quoted EU charge d’affaires Roberto Cecutti as saying: “With this agreement in force, PNG will be the only country in the world being granted a special treatment in the fishery sector by the EU.

“Fishery products from whatever origin and processed in PNG can now be exported duty-free and quota-free to the EU market.

“Although the interim economic partnership agreement was already provisionally in force since the end of 2009, the completion of the EU internal procedures gives now legal certainty and predictability to economic operators,” Cecutti said.

This is the first trade and development agreement to be approved by the European parliament since the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty, which gives legal personality in international law to the EU and replaces the European Community in all its rights and obligations.

The agreement was initialled in 2007, and then signed in 2009 by PNG and Fiji.

It was already provisionally in force since the end of 2009.

It grants unconditional duty-free/quota-free access to EU markets, while committing Papua New Guinea and Fiji to an asymmetric opening of their markets.

On top of this, the interim EPA ensures particularly favourable conditions to Pacific countries in terms of rules of origin for fisheries (“global sourcing”).

The EU keeps negotiating a regional comprehensive EPA with all the 14 Pacific ACP countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Papua New Guinea powerbrokers snap up property

By PAUL CLEARY of The Australian   

WHEN Papua New Guinea's petroleum minister bought a Cairns McMansion in 2001, the deal was so ``quick and easy'' that the agent selling the property thought he was dealing with the wealthy owner of a coffee plantation.
Despite buying in the depths of the global financial crisis, William Duma didn't aggressively negotiate for a better price.
He paid $585,000 for the 330sq m, five-bedroom, two-bathroom home with water views after securing the services of a Cairns agent to do the deal.
``I was thinking, where did he get the money from? It was all too quick and easy,'' says real estate agent Shane Trimby, who sold the property.
Duma was involved in a much more lucrative business than coffee. As petroleum minister in the government led by PNG's 74-year-old founding father Michael Somare, Duma is the country's oil supremo. At the time of the purchase he was negotiating with ExxonMobil's consortium to build a mammoth $US15 billion liquefied natural gas project.
As PNG looms as an oil-rich country verging on state failure, some of its political elite have been quietly building up assets offshore, coinciding with huge development of the country's gold, petroleum and copper riches.
In the past five years, key political figures have invested $6 million in Cairns and Brisbane property. Some have their wives and children based in Australia and shuttle regularly between Port Moresby and Cairns.
Some of these politicians may have exploited an exemption in Australia's foreign investment regime that allows non-residents to buy new properties.
In 2008, foreigners used this exemption to buy $15 billion worth of residential real estate.
PNG is emerging as an extreme case of the two-speed economy, with boom conditions in Port Moresby driven by liquefied natural gas and other resource projects, while the rest of the country sinks deeper into poverty and state dysfunction.
While proving ineffective at running the country, Sir Michael and his family have shown themselves adept at buying real estate and hanging on to power.
After a no-confidence motion back in July, Sir Michael suspended parliament for the rest of the year, and then agreed to stand down in December pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct. But PNG's ``grand chief'' still remains very powerful, with his son Arthur and other party lieutenants in control.
The push to remove Somare reflects growing concern among PNG's elder statesmen over Somare's handling of important developments. The LNG project is one, but more controversial is China's Metallurgical Construction Corp nickel mine in the Ramu Valley, which has been given special concessions to dump toxic tailings into the sea.
An investigation on behalf of a major oil company found it cost about $500,000 in payments to landholders and other interests to get an oil permit approved. The company that commissioned the research decided not to invest in the country.
Another emerging concern is that vast tracts of rainforest are being leased to foreign logging companies in opaque arrangements involving corporate fronts controlled by foreign interests. As much as 10 per cent of the country has been handed over through these arrangements.
The Somare family made its first real estate purchase in Cairns in 2007, when Michael Somare bought an apartment in Parramatta Park north of the city for $349,000. The following year, his Australian-educated son, Arthur, minister for public enterprises, bought a home at Trinity Beach north of Cairns for $685,000. Somare's daughter, Dulciana Somare-Brash, then bought a $425,000 Trinity Beach home, also in 2008.
The purchases by Somare's children followed his return to power in August 2007. Arthur Somare's home is listed under his name in the phone book and he returns there regularly.
A Somare spokesman declined to respond to questions about how these properties were purchased.
But Duma tells The Australian he was ``quite well off'' before entering parliament, having been a partner in the Port Moresby office of the law firm Blake Dawson Waldron.
``I purchased a property in Cairns using my personal savings in Port Moresby. I obtained foreign exchange approval from the PNG Central Bank to remit funds to my Australian solicitor's trust account,'' Duma says.
``My Australia solicitors also obtained Foreign Investment Review Board approval before I could purchase the property. There is a clear paper trail showing the origin of the funds which I used to purchase the property.''
Duma says he declared the property to the Ombudsman Commission, which serves as ``the watchdog for leaders in PNG''. But the commission does not publicly release this information.
Duma acknowledges ``there may be a perception that because I am the Minister for Petroleum and Energy, I may have received some form of benefit from ExxonMobil''.
``All that I can say is that I was a wealthy person before I became a politician. The funds I used were from my savings account.''
Duma denies he was ``on the take'' and says ExxonMobil was very rigorous in its running of the project.
``They want to do it the ExxonMobil way -- very bureaucratic, very thorough.''
Businessman Peter Aitsi, who heads the PNG branch of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption watchdog, says MPs are not required to tell the public about these purchases.
``Given we have a general idea of the salary levels of MPs, this raises questions of how they have financed these purchases'' Aitsi says.
``For the man in the street, this should raise serious questions. So let's make this information public.''
Some of Somare's opponents, however, are also among the biggest property owners in Australia. Key opposition figure Mekere Morauta has built up even more assets than Somare from the profits of his fishing business.
Land title records show that Morauta's Australian wife, Roslyn, bought a $3.6m riverside mansion in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm in 2008. This followed a $910,000 purchase of another New Farm property in 1999.
Former minister Allan Marat bought a Brisbane apartment in 1996 for $400,000 and then in 2005 bought a $240,000 apartment in Surfers Paradise.
Marat resigned in May last year after making comments critical of the nickel mine and the benefits for PNG from the LNG project. A spokesman for Marat -- his son Immanuel -- says the properties were acquired with proceeds from Marat's Port Moresby law firm. Immanuel Marat says the purchases have been fully disclosed.
Australia's anti-money laundering body, Austrac, declines to comment on any evidence it may have obtained on real estate purchases by foreign politicians from neighbouring countries.
A spokesman says secrecy provisions prevent it from making any comment.
While some of PNG's political elite are accumulating wealth, life expectancy is falling and infant mortality is rising as the government becomes increasingly dysfunctional, unable to deliver basic services to its poor.
The LNG project is also fanning conflict as landholder groups squabble over the spoils. Earlier this year there was as shoot-out at Port Moresby airport between rival factions of landowners.
AusAID says about 40 per cent of PNG's population lives in poverty, below the international benchmark of less than $US1 a day. HIV-AIDS is rising inexorably. The latest estimate is almost 100,000 sufferers -- 2.56 per cent of the population.
There is no evidence that Duma, the Somare family or Marat acquired their properties inappropriately, but the federal government has been pushing PNG to consider adopting an anti-corruption regime known as the ``extractive industries transparency initiative''.
This program is designed to produce a set of double accounts showing what the government receives from oil companies and what the companies pay.
The initiative has in-principle support from 32 resource-rich nations, with PNG remaining a notable exception. East Timor, which only became independent eight years ago, has become the third country to fully comply with the demanding regime.
But Australia's Oil Search, one of PNG's main oil developers for the past 20 years, is not a member of the initiative because the PNG government does not support it. Oil Search operates the Kutubu oilfield in the southern highlands and is a minority shareholder in the LNG project.
A spokesman for ExxonMobil says the company has never given any special benefits to Duma or Arthur Somare. He says there is no connection between their real estate purchases and negotiations on the LNG project.

 

 Paul Cleary
Senior Writer
The Australian

2 HOLT STREET, SURRY HILLS NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA
Tel:  +61 2 9288 3045   Fax: +61 2 9288 7576 Mob:  +61 431 055 584
Email: clearypaul@theaustralian.com.au  

 

Skeletons emerge from pine forests of Bulolo

By MALUM NALU
Apart from gold, there is something else that iconic Bulolo, Morobe province, is famous for, and that is its beautiful and majestic pine trees.

Plantation pine at Bulolo. Picture courtesy of  PNG FOREST PRODUCTS.

The major industry is now forestry and there are large plantings of hoop and klinkii pine trees.
The plantations are run by the National Forest Service of the PNG Forest Authority with the major client being PNG Forest Products, a company that evolved from Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd, which commenced operations in large-scale alluvial mining in the late 1920s.
But beneath the surface is a festering sore which must be attended to and that is the issue of traditional ownership of the land on which the pine plantations stand.
Skeletons of the past are now emerging from the magnificent pine forests of Bulolo.

Golden Pine Plantations, Bulolo. Picture by PNG FOREST PRODUCTS.

It has the potential to become a major legal issue, like that of the Watut River, pitching landowners against the PNG and Australian governments.
It has shades of the infamous Manhattan island purchase of 1626, in which that prime piece of real estate now worth billions, was purchased from American Indians for a measly $24 worth of trinkets!
To understand how the forestry business began in Bulolo, it is necessary to step back in time, to the late 1920s when it was one of the largest gold fields in the world.
A total of seven dredges scoured the valley floor, dredging thousands of tonnes of high grade gold-bearing ore.
As the mining operation scaled down, the plywood factory and sawmill were constructed.
In collaboration with the then government, the pine plantations were also established at this time.
In 1954, plywood production and the export of product to overseas destinations commenced.
From the early 1950s the company has been involved in the conversion of both hardwood and plantation resource to high value end products.
Today, PNG Forest Products is the leading producer of timber and plywood products using only 100% plantation pine.
Its products include prefabricated houses, dressed timber and mouldings, treated power poles, export high grade plywood and veneers.
Australian administration of the then Territory of New Guinea, in 1948 and 1951, acquired the land on which large forests of hoop and klinkii pine are now situated from landowners at Manki village.
Copies of original land transfer documents obtained by The National show that that Australian administration paid a mere 583 pounds in 1948 and 5, 705 pounds in 1951 for land and forest assets now worth millions.
The landowners, however, argue that they have never seen or received any of this money
In 1952, BGD and the Australian government became partners in a company called Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers (CNGT), which has evolved into today’s PNGFP under different ownership.
The plan was to make plywood from the hoop and klinki pines on Manki land, which resulted in what landowners term the “unlawful” acquisition of native land by the Australian administration.
The Wenge Tanataime Landowners’ Association from Wautu local level government (LLG) in Bulolo, the legal body set up by landowners of Manki village, has been arguing with the PNG government over the last couple of years in relation to the 1948 and 1951 land purchases issue.
They have written to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, acting chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc, PNGFA and the Lands Titles Commission (LTC), among others, to spell out their grievances.
The PNGFA, the only one to respond so far, has advised the landowners to pursue their claim through the LTC, and failing that, through the courts.
“We say this because PNG Forest Authority, as a state agency, occupies the Bulolo plantation land through a certificate of occupancy,” PNGFA legal officer Uti Sepoe said in a letter to landowners last November.
“Any closure of the plantation by your association will invoke the full force of the law.PNG Forest Authority does not wish this to happen.”
The association says the legislation governing the ‘transfer of land by natives to the administration’ during the colonial era was the Land Ordinance 1922, which stated that land may be acquired in the territory for purposes other than mining or forestry under a lease hold tenure granted by the administration in accordance with the 1922 ordinance.
The type of leases provided for were agricultural purposes, pastoral purposes, residences and business purposes, special purposes and mission leases.
“Therefore, the acquisition/purchase/transfer of Manki native land under the land ordinance is legally questionable,” the association argues.
“A legal opinion exists that purchase of native land for mining or forestry is not permitted under the land ordinance.
“The condition under which land may be taken for the purpose of felling, cutting removing and disposing of timber are set forth in the Forestry Ordinance 1936.
“That is if the native owners are willing to dispose the timber growing on any land, then the administration may acquire the exclusive right to such timber.
“In addition to the forestry ordinance, there was a special piece of legislation entitled ‘New Guinea Timber Agreement Act 1952’, which was enacted by the Australian parliament.
“This covered the agreement between the commonwealth of Australia and BGD to form a company, CNGT, with the object of acquiring timber rights in the territory.”
Landowners’ consultant, Kevin Mon, was in Port Moresby last week to follow up on letters sent last year; however, most of them, apart from NFA, didn’t seem to give a hoot.
“I have delivered documents outlining our claims to Bulolo MP Sam Basil and Morobe administrator Kemas Tomala,” he said from Bulolo today.
“Up to now, we are still waiting for a reply from them.”

Laptops, stimulants and porn movies seized

FOUR laptops containing pornographic videos and still images, including stimulant products such as lubricants, were confiscated by members of the Sunset Merona operation on Tuesday night, The National reports.

First Const Marcellin Klei displaying the confiscated Acer brand laptops allegedly containing pornographic videos and still images at the PNG Defence Force forward base in Vanimo. Task force members also confiscated stimulant products on Tuesday night during Operation Sunset Merona. – Nationalpic by ANGELINE KARIUS

The items were confiscated at a logging camp during a night patrol night in West Sepik’s Vanimo-Green electorate.
The operation’s command said Sunset Merona personnel had acted on a tip-off from the public.
Together with foreign affairs and immigration officers, the joint forces personnel entered the logging camp at Nyau village and detained the owners of the laptops and the stimulant products. They were brought back to Vanimo for questioning, and released yesterday.
Since the launch of Sunset Merona, regular street patrols had been conducted in Vanimo town and along the highway.

Mum gets life for murder

Elis Onda planned and drowned her four children

 

By JAMES APA GUMUNO

 

ELIS Onda, on July 4, 2009, coldly and with premeditation drowned all four of her children in the Kum River near Mt Hagen in Western Highlands, The National reports.

Driven by marital problems, her plan had been to drown herself along with her children but the river swept her to the side and she survived.

Yesterday, the Mt Hagen National Court sentenced Onda to life imprisonment for the murder of eight-year-old Angeline, Tresy, 7, Naomi, 5, and two-year-old Solomon.

Justice Allan David found Onda guilty on four counts of wilful murder.

The court heard that on July 3, 2009, the prisoner dressed her children in their best clothes and took them to Warakum, telling her children that they would see a relative.

She took them to the banks of the river where they waited until 4am before she executed her plan.

She picked up Solomon, who was sleeping, and threw him into the river. She then picked up Naomi, who was also sleeping, and threw her into the river.

Then, grabbing the arms of her bigger daughters, Angeline and Tresy, she jumped with them into the river.

All the children drowned but she was swept to the side of the river by the current and survived.

She later contacted police who conducted a search and found the bodies of her children in the river.

David said he had considered the death penalty, even though the public prosecutor did not make any death penalty submission, but that her marriage problems, which prompted her macabre plan, were mitigating factors.

He told the prisoner that the court spared her life after considering submissions made by state that she was forced to commit the crime because of her marriage problems.

The judge told her that a child, once born, had the right to life as guaranteed by section 35 of the constitution.

He said the prisoner had ample time to call off her plan but she persisted, driven by problems of her marriage, to kill young, innocent and defenseless children.

He said it gave him much pain to think that the deceased, of tender years, were made to suffer slowly by drowning.

David said the deceased children had nothing to do with her problems, even if they were part of the problems.

The prisoner had no right to shift the problem she was overwhelmed with onto her kids and offered them as sacrificial lambs as it were for a solution.

Her actions were cruel and inhuman and she had no regard for the sanctity of life, the judge said.

“I have considered imposing the death sentence but, having considered all of the foregoing factors, I consider that it will not be just and appropriate to do so,” he said.

David sentenced Elis to life imprisonment in respect of all counts to be served concurrently at the Baisu jail.

 

 

Foreign affairs awaits reports from Brisbane

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

THE Department of Foreign Affairs is yet to receive a full report on the status of PNG citizens living in Brisbane, Australia, The National reports

Acting secretary Alexis Maino told The National that his office was still waiting for reports to be compiled by the consular-general in Brisbane.

Maino said he had not received updates of how many citizens were affected and what plans were in place to assist them.

Meanwhile, according to unconfirmed reports, many PNG citizens, mostly children of politicians, business people, judges and chief executives and secretaries, were living and studying in Brisbane but it was not known if they were affected.

Several attempts to contact the consul in Brisbane were unsuccessful.

According to an email report, four youngsters from Papua New Guinea managed to get away from the Queensland flood earlier last week.

The three boys and a girl, who were attending a national Christian youth convention on the Gold Coast, and were sent to stay with the Uniting church in the rural Queensland town of Maryborough, were saved by the minister.

The email stated, at the time, no one knew that the town would be swept up in the damaging floods while the youths were enjoying themselves.

Another lucky PNG family to have been saved thanked the national flag carrier, Air Niugini, for holding the flight out of Brisbane for them to be evacuated.

The email read: “On behalf of my family, I would like to thank Air Niugini for delaying the aircraft for seven minutes on Jan 13 at the Brisbane airport so my family could board flight QF379 for Port Moresby.

“We were in a rush to get out of Brisbane due to the recent floods.”

The email said since all major roads were closed, they got on an early train bound for the airport but, again, the train stalled midway.

A quick-thinking Queensland railway staff put them on a taxi to the airport 10 minutes after checking closed, but the plane waited and got the family out of Brisbane.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

McIlwain committed to National Court

By JACOB POK

 

FORMER chief executive of Bank South Pacific Garth McIlwain has been committed to stand trial at the National Court by the Waigani committal court yesterday, The National reports.

 He faces charges of forgery and altering and on appearance before Magistrate Sinclair Gora, who ruled, saying that there was sufficient evidence provided by the prosecution that warranted McIlwain to be committed to face trial.

McIlwain, a respected figure in PNG’s finance and banking industry, was arrested and charged mid last year over allegations of conspiracy to defraud a certain company owned by former politician and Madang businessman Peter Yama.

Yama laid a complaint, claiming McIlwain had falsified a document relating to a fixed and floating charge and heavily debited his (Yama’s) company without his knowledge.

Yama previously pushed similar charges against two other BSP bankers, Robin Fleming and John Maddison, but their charges were dismissed last year by the National Court.

Yama claim McIlwain had allegedly signed the fixed and floating document in 1999 when he was not the director.

Yama further claimed he had never obtained any loan from BSP in the period of May 1999 and was surprised the fix and floating charges were created.

Gora in his ruling mentioned that there were “serious evidence” produced before the court by Yama’s witnesses.

He said one of the evidence was an affidavit signed by deputy registrar of companies, Alex Tongayu, stating that the fixed and floating document signed by McIlwain on May 6, 1999, was altered, in which the front and the back pages of the document were different from the rest. 

The evidence also claimed that several pages of the document were photocopied from previous fixed and floating documents.

Additional evidences by Peter O’Neill tendered in court also claimed that McIlwain was not a director of the bank at the time when he signed the documents. ient to bring the matter to trial.

McIlwain’s lawyers argued that the fixed and floating documents were created to recover loans that Yama never repaid.