PNG crowd welcomes royals

By Eoin Blackwell,
AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent


A crowd of several thousand has turned up at Port Moresby's Jackson's
Airport to witness the arrival of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess
of Cornwall in Papua New Guinea.
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have just landed on a Royal
Australian Air Force plane to begin a 13-day tour of the Southern
Hemisphere to mark Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.
The royals are to be met with a 21 gun salute and will be greeted by
200 school children dressed in traditional PNG attire.
The children, or pikinis in pidgin, will be greeting nambawan pikini
bilong misis kwin (number one child of the Queen) with a Hiri dance -
a traditional dance performed as part of a trading ritual by coastal
peoples who live near Port Moresby.
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Outside the official welcoming area, the crowd let off a cheer as
members of the defence force entered the grounds.
Prince Charles and the Duchess are expected to be cheered by 550
school children from around Port Moresby as they travel to meet
Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio on Saturday evening.
The royal duo will spend the next three days touring in and around the
capital, visiting a nearby village and participating in an ecumenical
church service and cultural display in Port Moresby.
It will be Prince Charles's fourth visit to the Pacific island nation
since he was a schoolboy in 1966.
It will be the Duchess of Cornwall's first trip to PNG.
The Prince and the Duchess leave PNG on Monday for Australia.
Prince Charles is expected to celebrate his 64th birthday in New
Zealand on November 14.

PNG readies for Charles and Camilla tour

AAP

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will kick off a 13-day tour of the southern hemisphere to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee with a visit to Papua New Guinea today.

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are scheduled to touch down at PNG's capital Port Moresby this evening, to be greeted by traditional dancers and a 21-gun salute.

The pair will spend the next three days touring in and around the capital, visiting a nearby village and participating in an ecumenical church service and cultural display in Port Moresby.

It will be Charles' fourth visit to the Pacific island nation since his first trip there as a schoolboy in 1966.

It will be the Duchess of Cornwall's first visit to PNG.

The royal couple leave PNG on Monday for Australia.

Charles is expected to celebrate his 64th birthday in New Zealand on November 14.

 

Malarial disease threat on Australia's doorstep

By Rick Morton  from The Australian

  

THE deadly, mosquito-borne disease malaria remains a potent threat on Australia's doorstep where countries like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea need extra help to fight it, a report has found.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) founded the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership to take on the global fight and authored a report studying the effects of the disease battle outside of Africa, where it has long been at its most destructive.

Australia has pledged $100 million over the next four years to fight malaria in the Asia-Pacific, part of a bid to save 70,000 lives by 2015.

The funding includes $14.5 million to combat drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong region of Asia, which threatens to drastically increase the disease's annual global death toll of at least 650,000.

A further $20 million will go specifically to three Pacific nations most affected by malaria - the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

Another $10 million has been earmarked for research under Australia's aid program.

The move was announced by Foreign Minister Bob Carr at a malaria conference in Sydney.

It's part of collaborative efforts to provide 276 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, two billion rapid diagnostic tests and 47 million quality malaria drug treatments.

The Asia-Pacific is the second worst-hit part of the world, recording 30 million cases of malaria and 42,000 deaths in 2010.

Africa suffers the most, and experts at the conference have warned of a 25 per cent jump in mortality rates if drug-resistant malaria reaches the continent from Asia.

Drug resistance is caused by wrong treatments, patients not completing their treatments and the use of sub-standard and counterfeit drugs.

RBM Executive Director, Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traor, said the burden of malaria was significant and needed political action immediately.

"In the face of persistent economic uncertainty and profound changes in the landscape of global development aid, the region needs strong political leadership," he said.

"It also needs to develop financing strategies that include substantive and sustained domestic investment, traditional multilateral and bilateral aid and truly innovative sources of funding."

Millennium Development Goals, agreed to in principle by the Australian government, hope to reduce the "burden" of malaria by three-quarters by 2015.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, in Sydney for the final day of the Malaria 2012: Saving Lives in the Asia Pacific conference, said action was needed in the region.

"We're pursuing the target of a 75 per cent reduction in malaria cases and deaths in the Asia-Pacific by 2015," he said.

"Malaria does not respect borders. Our focus must be on cross-regional action alongside traditional single-country strategies."

"Today's meeting is an opportunity for Asia-Pacific leaders to coordinate efforts in controlling or eliminating the spread of malaria."

Malaria persists in poor, often regional areas, and is usually easily preventable, though resistance to malarial drugs is building.

"Antimalarial drug resistance is one of the greatest challenges to continued success in controlling and eliminating malaria in the Asia-Pacific," said Dr. Robert Newman, Director of the WHO's Global Malaria Programme

"There is an urgent need for coordinated action against this public health threat. It will be critical to galvanise political action and secure investments to implement an emergency response plan for the Greater Mekong Subregion."

 

Additional reporting: AAP

Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall prepare to embark on Southern Hemisphere tour

By Lucy Kinder of The Telegraph

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will begin their 13 day tour of the Southern Hemisphere today to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

The Prince and the Duchess will visit Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand in the latest trip to the Commonwealth by senior royals.

The trip will see the Prince return to Papua New Guinea for the fourth time. He first visited in 1966 aged 17 while studying at Geelong Grammar School in Australia.

But it will be a first visit for the Duchess who also revealed earlier this month that she had never been to Australia.

She made the admission at a St James's Palace reception to mark their tour.

One of the performers at the event, Kylie Minogue, jokingly ticked-off the Duchess, branding her 'naughty' for not visiting Australia before now.

Clarence House has said that the Prince would “renew old friendships and form new ties” during the two-week trip

But the Royal couple may have some trouble landing at their first tour destination as landowners in Papua New Guinea have threatened to shut down the national airport ahead of their visit.

The residents are claiming 4.5 million kina (£1.4 million) in compensation for land they lost when the airport in the capital, Port Moresby, was built.

The Prince and Duchess are due to land in Port Moresby on Saturday night as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. They will tour Port Moresby and the village of Boera, where locals are restoring coastal mangroves.

The Prince and the Duchess will be greeted by traditional sing-sings, in which tribes or villages gather to show off their distinct culture, dance and music, dressing in elaborate costumes and war paint.

They will leave Papua New Guinea on Monday for a six-day visit to Australia where they will tour the outback town of Longreach and the cities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, Sydney and Canberra.

The royal couple will end their tour in New Zealand, where Prince Charles will celebrate his 64th birthday on November 14 in Wellington.

The Duchess of Cornwall has been taking a break at a holistic Indian retreat before the start of the tour.

She has been staying at the Soukya health centre in Bangalore, an ayurvedic “wellness centre” offering rejuvenation and detoxification programmes.

KAML: Strong Q3

THE latest quarterly return achieved by Kina Asset Management Limited (KAML) provides an 11% growth for the nine months of this year, The National reports.

Releasing the latest quarterly report, KAML chairman Sir Rabbie Namaliu said growth had been achieved in each quarter and in the September quarter the investment portfolio increased by K3.6 million, a gain of 9.84%.

The KAML portfolio has risen from K37.3 million last December to K41.05 million at the end of the September quarter.

Sir Rabbie revealed that KAML investment strategy had increased its targeted allocation and benchmarks on domestic equities to between 40% and 50% while international equities in Australia, Asia and other world markets were adjusted to a 50% to 60% range.

“The performance of the domestic-listed equities, international-listed equities and exchange-traded fund exceeded their respective benchmarks, while the global ex Australia performed below the benchmark, “Sir Rabbie said.

KAML generated an investment gain of K4.41 million for the nine-month period representing a return of 11%.

Sir Rabbie mentioned that KAML’s trading strategy continued to be positive and to take advantage of market gains.

“Unfortunately,  the global financial scene continues to have an adverse overarching impact on the regional markets, but despite the continuing dismal global economic instability and caution, local equities continue to provide sound investment opportunities,” he said.

“Our fund manager Kina Funds Management Ltd has been prudent in working consistently in line with our overall trading strategy with very impressive results.”

“The successful growth of PNG and Pacific-based companies has been responsible for the ongoing consistent growth.

“The increase in the portfolio was also attributable to the valuation gains of listed equities and dividend received.”

Sir Rabbie said that in the first-half of this year, PNG continued to experience high economic growth which was indicated by increased employment and the value of sales in the private sector.

Kalinoe: Nautilus has to settle row

By MALUM NALU

 

PETROMIN chief executive officer and managing director Joshua Kalinoe is waiting for a dispute between the state and Nautilus Minerals to be resolved before Petromin can take a 30% stake in the Nautilus development worth up to US$500 million, The National reports.

Kalinoe said this yesterday at a luncheon he held with members of the media while refusing to go into details of the dispute between state and Nautilus.

“There’s a dispute between the state and the developer (Nautilus),” he said.

“Because of that, we can’t do much.

“We have been nominated (by the state) to participate in the project.

“Until the dispute is resolved, we can’t do much.

“The issue has been disputed by Nautilus, not by the state.

“By doing so, they (Nautilus) are delaying the project, not the state.”

In June Nautilus chief executive Stephen Rogers said that he expects to settle things with Petromin within “months” once the election was over, but that now seemed a more remote possibility.

Nautilus says PNG undertook to help fund the Solwara 1 project  – almost half built –  as part of an agreement signed last year that gave the country 30% ownership, but the go­vernment appears to be digging in its heals over the issue.

In a response in June,  Petromin alleged that Nautilus was the party that breached the terms of the deal and that the state was “therefore entitled to terminate the agreement”.

In late April, Nautilus announced it had signed China’s Tongling Non-Ferrous Metals Group as the first customer for its pioneering PNG sea-floor mine.

The undersea mine was slated to begin production in the fourth quarter of next year, but Nautilus is also facing funding problems concerning its German partner building the US$160 million surface vessel, which is the base for the entire underwater operation.

Nautilus still has some US$100 million cash in the bank.

Kalinoe, meantime, said Petromin was waiting for the final decision on the Gulf LNG project and the Wafi-Golpu project in Morobe to make final decisions.

“Again, we’re waiting for a decision by state on when the project will get formally off the ground,” he said of the Gulf LNG.

On Wafi-Golpu, Kalinoe said Petromin had been nominated by the state and was doing desktop studies as well as those on technical and economic aspects.

“We’re just waiting for the developer Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture to go through the process and wait for the final decisions,” he said.

“This is normal.

“The state nominated us through the minister for mining and the minister for petroleum.”

Quintessential Resources granted exploration licence for PNG porphyry project

By Angela Kean of proactive investors

Quintessential Resources (ASX: QRL) has been granted exploration
licence (EL) 2045 covering the 2,563 square kilometre Aria River
Project in Papua New Guinea which is prospective for porphyry copper
and gold.
Aria River is situated on New Britain Island and is located adjoining
and immediately east of Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM) and Frontier
Resources' (ASX: FNT) Andewa joint venture project that is currently
being drilled and shows the potential for a large porphyry gold
system.
The Aria River tenement contains the Stoneleigh Prospect, which is a
large zone of anomalous copper, gold, molybdenum and arsenic
associated with a volcanics and limestone and located at the central
western edge of the exploration licence.
Extremely limited historic work by BHP Minerals showed copper of
greater than 0.1% in two different rock types, along with effectively
all the samples collected being anomalous in molybdenum and arsenic
with trace gold.
Quintessential is currently considering joint venture opportunities to
advance the project.