Bank of South Pacific posts K355 million profit

By MALUM NALU

Bank of South Pacific has announced profit after tax of K355.95 million for 2011, as revenues from ordinary activities soared to a record K1.18 million, despite testing political times.

 Board chairman Kostas Constantinou announced yesterday (Monday) that BSP Group achieved a consolidated operating profit before tax of K475 million for the 2011 financial year, a 15.6% increase on the consolidated operating profit of K410.8 million.

“Politically, PNG’s constitution has been tested,” he said.

“These events have influenced perceptions and attracted international criticism, leading to a downgrade in the country’s sovereign credit rating.

“They also impacted on the bank, with our credit rating being cut a notch by Standard and Poors.

“Nevertheless, the continuing advance of the PNG LNG project continues to dominate economic activity and forms the basis for a generally-positive outlook for the PNG economy in 2012.”

Total assets of the group increased by about K1.65 billion, to K11.68 billion.

“Bank and group achieved a milestone in 2011, with revenues from ordinary activities pushing past K1 billion for the first time,” Constantinou said.

“For the group, revenues have increased 24% during the year, building upon the trends established in the prior year.

“With interest income constrained by low bank bill rates during 2011, most of the revenue growth has come from non-interest income streams.

“Good growth has been achieved with customer transaction volumes, though major acquisition campaigns supported by product and process revisions, and accelerated growth in electronic banking channels.”

He said the bank’s achievements were strong, with pre-tax profits growing 15.9% to K466.2 million, from K402.1 million in 2010, supported by K1.02 billion of revenue net of interest expense.

Total assets of the bank at the end of 2011 were just over K10.018 billion, including the assets of the former subsidiary company, National Bank of Fiji Ltd, which was converted to bank status in March 2011.

“The 2011 results have been achieved on the back of strong domestic growth of the PNG economy, driven by continuing LNG project-related activities and other resource projects in various stages of development, despite a fractious and fickle global environment,” Constantinou said.

“Monetary policy in PNG adopted a tighter stance during 2011, with Bank of Papua New Guinea’s Kina Facility Rate increasing from 7% to 7.75% through the year.

“Strong export performance, supported by favorable global commodity prices has continued to boost liquidity levels, and this has meant interest rates on Central Bank bills have remained at the low levels where they ended 2012, maintaining significant downward pressure on net interest income.”

Fiji leading the way on climate change response

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI

FIJI’s effort to address the adverse impacts of climate change is on track with the endorsement of its National Climate Change Policy by cabinet early this month.

 In launching the policy, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, reportedly said that the policy and other related policies that it already had in place in agriculture, land use, forestry, fisheries and water would play an important role in supporting its efforts to reduce adverse impacts of climate change on their economic and social development.

He noted that these policies together would focus on the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources and the establishment of appropriate institutional arrangements for effective implementation and monitoring.

This is reported to be in line with their overall approach towards environmental management in order to address issues that may emanate from natural hazards and unsustainable resource management and utilisation.

Without going into the details of the policy, one area worth mentioning was the inclusion of an implementation framework that identifies the responsible lead agencies and implementing agencies.

 This implementation framework will serve as a guide to organise its stakeholders when it comes to implementation.

 We believe this a step in the right direction and commend our fellow Pacific islands nation for coming up with such as a policy.

We hope all other Pacific island countries and territories, including Papua New Guinea will need to follow suit.

This is not to say that we are not doing anything on this front, we have made efforts already but we need to show more commitment in implementation.

Such action is becoming increasingly necessary as climate change constitutes one of the greatest barriers to sustainable development in the country and the region.

It is putting our biodiversity and ecosystems at risk.

Climate change is expected to bring about an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as flooding, droughts and cyclones. 

A farmer planting sweet potato vines on a mound in Tambul, Western Highlands. Climate change will have an impact on food security, thus our farmers must be engaged in any response activities on the impacts of climate changes.

A water harvesting equipment built using locally-available resources being tested at NARI Momase Regional Research Centre, Bubia,  outside Lae. Water availability will be impacted by climate change and efforts should be made to developing simple water harvesting technologies such as this to assist local communities.

Whilst we may be considered as insignificant contributor to climate change, the region has been classified as highly vulnerable to its impacts.

This is likely to have severe implications on our economic growth, as we rely heavily on our natural resources.

Our economy and livelihood are based around fisheries, forestry and agriculture.

As demonstrated by Fiji, PNG needs to have a multi-disciplinary approach and a well-established government position on issues and policies required to address the impacts of climate change.  We need to have in place clearly defined roles of stakeholders, both in the short and long term.  

We have to develop frameworks that reflect current and emerging climate change issues at the local, national and international level.

We need to have a policy that provides a platform for coordination among sectors and direction on national positions and priorities regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation.

We are fortunate to have regional organisations such as the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and University of South Pacific (USP), which are already implementing regional climate change programmes that support the development of our national programmes and policies.

Any national climate change policy developed should be providing the necessary guidelines for all sectors to ensure that current and expected impacts of climate change are considered in planning and implementing our programmes.

Such policies should also encourage relevant sectors to contribute in mitigating initiatives as part of our contributions to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It is obvious that current administrative and institutional frameworks relating to climate change activities are operating separately and need to be more effectively integrated and coordinated.

The absence of our own climate change policy may be slowing our efforts for effective coordination, which could hinder our efforts to address climate change systematically at the national level.

We believe having own policy should set the platform for dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders through organised planning and implementation of national and local climate change related programmes.

Such policy would also support us meeting our international obligation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

We need to have a policy that defines clear objectives and accompanying strategies to facilitate the mainstreaming of climate change issues into relevant sectors and to support the provision of necessary technical and financial resources to this end.

Most importantly we need to develop a policy with wide consultation with all stakeholders.

Our communities, farmers, women, and resource owners must be engaged from the beginning. Their voices have to be taken into consideration in national climate change policy and must been seen part of our efforts to addressing the impacts of climate change.

Let us avoid the practice in the past of developing policies and strategies that were aimed at addressing problems, without analysing their implications when it comes to implementing them. We need to have a policy that is put together by all concerned, including a well defined implementation framework clearly defining the roles of all sectors.

Celebrating women in agriculture

By SENIORL ANZU

Papua New Guinea women’s involvement in agricultural research gained more significance during International Women’s Day last week.

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) gathered a group of PNG’s leading female agricultural researchers in Port Moresby to celebrate the important contribution of PNG’s women agricultural researchers to empowering rural women to end hunger and poverty.

“Women play a key role in agriculture, one of PNG’s most significant industries, supporting up to 85% of the population,” according to ACIAR.

“PNG has many talented women agricultural researchers who are delivering improvements in agricultural production and marketing.”

Among those in attendance were scientists and researchers of various research and development organisations such as the National Agricultural Research Institute, Coffee Industry Corporation, Fresh Produce Development Agency, New Britain Palm Oil and PNG Women in Agriculture.

 Many of them are partners in ACIAR projects.

Richard Marles and PNG women agriculture researchers in Port Moresby last Thursday during the International Women's Day

Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Pacific Island Affairs, Richard Marles, met with them during their gathering.

Marles highlighted that women and girls make huge contributions and with better education, they can escape poverty.

"An educated girl can make more decisions for herself, has the potential to earn money, to choose when to get married and when to have children," he said.

"She will know more about nutrition, is more likely to seek vaccinations for her children and invest in her family and community.

"All of Australia's development programmes in PNG place women at their centre, because we know that when we help girls and women fulfil their potential, their families and communities grow and prosper."

 Marles said women in PNG play a critical role in agriculture and they need to take one step at a time to inspire girls to build the future for all women.

Philmah Seta, project scientist with ACIAR vegetable project at NARI Laloki, Central province

Meanwhile, the main strategy of ACIAR’s programme in PNG is to secure improved food supply and rural incomes for smallholder farmers.

This is being achieved by increasing productivity and profitability of farming systems, including by developing breeding strategies, integrated pest, disease, weed and nutrient strategies, and through evaluating wider industrial opportunities for products.

The ACIAR programme is also examining the role and effectiveness of women’s groups in rural industries, in terms of efficiency and equity in agricultural and marketing systems.