FGV mulls Papua New Guinea foray

By Zaidi Isham Ismail

New Straits Times

FELDA Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV), the world's largest crude palm oil producer, may venture into Papua New Guinea to increase its plantation land. President and group chief executive officer Datuk Sabri Ahmad said Papua New Guinea's government officials were impressed with FGV's businesses and operations during their visit here recently.

"They were impressed with the FGV model and have asked for our help to start oil palm plantations in Papua New Guinea. If all goes well, we will go there on a government-to-government level of cooperation.

"We are conducting feasibility studies and technical due dilligence and if we decide to go there, we can easily start with an initial 10,000ha. The land is suitable for oil palm and can either be greenfields or brownfields," Sabri told Business Times in an interview.

FGV currently has a RM4.4 billion war chest following its listing on Bursa Malaysia last June.

Sabri had said previously it would use part of the proceeds to buy more plantation land as oil palm land in Malaysia is limited, and also with many plantation companies having expanded resinto Indonesia.

He had said FGV was looking for land in Myanmar, Cambodia and more recently in Mindanao in the Philippines.

The latter plan, however, was put on hold following the Lahad Datu intrusion recently.

FGV currently owns a total of 350,000ha and manages another 500,000ha for the country's 112,635 settlers grouped under the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

FGV has businesses in cooking oil, oleochemicals and refinery operations in 12 countries.

If FGV's plan materialises, Papua New Guinea will be its second overseas plantation land venture after Indonesia.

On its Myanmar venture, Sabri said the company is in the final stage of due dilligence with a local partner to start rubber processing activities in the country's south.

"We will buy natural rubber from local farmers and turn them into processed rubber. If it is successful, we may go further into rubber plantations by buying an initial 12,000ha," he added.

In December, FGV signed a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar's Pho La Min Trading Ltd.

Under the deal, a joint venture company will be set up to develop rubber business in three phases, starting with a processing plant.

On West Kalimantan, Sabri said FGV, which owns 14,700ha there, is in the final stage of a due dilligence to plant another 10,000ha at Kebun Patin Landak.

Kulim (Malaysia) Bhd is another Malaysian planter in Papua New Guinea through its 48.7 per cent-owned New Britain Palm Oil Ltd.

Kulim, in turn, is 59.6 per cent-owned by state government investment agency Johor Corp.

Read more: FGV mulls Papua New Guinea foray http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20130429002909/Article/index_html#ixzz2RoPYcXZS

PTTEP considers energy investment in Papua New Guinea

National News Bureau of Thailand

Thailand's leading energy explorer is considering an investment plan in Papua New Guinea although the company has conceded that more time is needed before a conclusion is drawn.

Mr. Tevin Vongvanich, President and Chief Executive Officer of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), revealed that the company's investment feasibility study has been underway in Papua New Guinea.

He stated that the plan was conceived to help Thailand achieve energy security in the future when local demand is expected to surpass domestic supply.

The President and CEO of PTTEP said Papua New Guinea is considered a possible investment destination as the country has been discovered with natural gas deposits and its liquefied natural gas development project has already begun.

Mr. Tevin added that the government of Papua New Guinea extended an official invitation to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during her recent trip to the South Pacific nation for Thailand to conduct an exploration project.

He said PTTEP is in the middle of data collection and analysis to determine the quality of the natural gas deposits and if the investment will be worthwhile.

PTTEP stressed that more time will be needed before a thorough study in Papua New Guinea can be completed and a decision can be made.

Papua New Guinea health workforce crisis: A call to action

World Bank

• Download report: Papua New Guinea (PNG) health workforce crisis : a call to action

• Papua New Guinea faces a health workforce supply crisis arising from:

(i)    the current severely constrained training system for new health workforce cadres;

(ii)    the rapid aging of the existing workforce – over half of the current health workforce will retire within a decade;

(iii)   the expanding demand for services over the next 10 to 20 years due to sustained increase of the population.

• The National Headcount Survey in 2009 shows that the size of the health workforce financed by the public sector has grown from 10,791 in 1998 to 13,063 in 2009. Since 2004, however, the pace of growth has slowed down markedly. The number of nurses, for example, dropped from 3,980 in 2004 to 3,618 in 2009.

• To respond to the health workforce crisis, the PNG government’s needs to deal with:

(i)    the immediate supply-side crisis (quantity);

(ii)    the qualitative side, including preservice and in-service training (especially for emergency obstetric care for existing staff);

(iii)   incentives to ensure staff are able to be deployed where needed, particularly in rural areas which is home to 80 percent of the population.

• Armed with information of supply and demand, the report provides five scenarios to draw out the implications for each health cadre and for all service delivery staff, including affordability. The five scenarios vary from no change in existing supply capacity to four alternative scenarios with supply adjusted to meet the postulated demand.

• The scenario most recommended envisages a new mix of direct service-delivery staff, which is not only affordable but also responds to the demand requirements for staff from the health system while leaving space in the recurrent health budget to boost quality. This scenario is driven by: (i) the growth in the resource envelope likely to be available for health and service-delivery staff; and (ii) the feasibility and speed with which preservice training can be ramped up to meet the demands of workforce attrition and the needs of a growing population.

PNG minister says conjugal bail will curb sex crimes

By ABC Papua New Guinea correspondent Liam Fox

Papua New Guinea's only female minister says some prisoners should be released on bail to have sex with their wives to reduce sex crimes.

Loujaya Toni, the minister for religion, youth and community development, has drawn a link between prison breaks and sexual assaults.
In a statement, she says when men escape after being locked up and deprived of sex they will "find a female … to vent their sexual aggression".
Ms Toni says the solution is to release low and medium-security prisoners on weekend conjugal visits in order to "prevent rising levels of sexual frustration".
She also says high-risk prisoners should be injected with drugs to "lower their sexual aggressiveness".
Her comments have been widely panned on social media sites.
Ms Toni declined an interview with the ABC.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce departs PNG

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce has departed Papua New Guinea, ending a five-day state visit to the Pacific Island nation.

During her last day, Ms Bryce visited a library charity, Buk Bilong Pikinini, at the university of PNG in Port Moresby and announced the opening of a mobile library funded in partnership with Make a Mark Australia.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce has departed Papua New Guinea following a five-day state visit.

Buk Bilong Pikinini supplements the education of some PNG children through a library network in the rugged and infrastructure poor nation.
A planned trip south to Milne Bay was cancelled when a storm and poor visibility prevented the Army C-130 Hercules from landing, forcing Ms Bryce and her entourage back to Port Moresby.
It was the only hiccup in an otherwise busy week.
While in PNG Ms Bryce took part in Anzac Day commemorations around the country, as well as attending a women's roundtable discussion at Parliament House.
On Tuesday Ms Bryce paid her respects to Australian soldiers killed during the first and second world wars in Rabaul in East New Britain.
On Anzac Day she attended a dawn service in Port Moresby before flying to memorial services in Isurava and Kokoda.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/governor-general-quentin-bryce-departs-png/story-e6frfkui-1226630262354#ixzz2ReCFVZln

Black Cat trek recalls epic battles

By Kerri-Ann O'Sullivan

Special journey: Blaxland MP Jason Clare at the Australian War Museum for the launch of the 2013 Mateship Trek.

BLAXLAND MP Jason Clare will host the Mateship Trek in Papua New Guinea this Anzac Day.
Mr Clare is walking the Black Cat Track from Wau to Salamaua in Papua New Guinea with a group of Australians to commemorate the 70th anniversary of World War II campaigns in the area.
The Mateship Trek is a bipartisan program established four years ago to bring together young Australians from different backgrounds to learn about each other, their potential and Australian military history.
The trek will conclude with a dawn service at the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Lae, where about 2800 men and women have been laid to rest. Almost 700 were killed in action on or around the Black Cat Track.
In January 1943, Australian forces defended the Wau airstrip against the Japanese.
On Anzac Day the order was given to surge towards Salamaua across what became known as the bloody ranges of northern New Guinea. Salamaua was taken by the Allies on September 11, 1943.
"The story of Kokoda is well known. Unfortunately, the heroic efforts of the Australian soldiers on the Black Cat Track a few months later have been largely forgotten," Mr Clare said.
"We need to fix this.
"That's what this trek is about. Walking in the footsteps of Australian soldiers, honouring them, learning their stories and making a commitment to live a life worthy of the sacrifices they made for us."
The Mateship Treks are held every two years.
The first, in 2009, was along the Kokoda Track. In 2011 the group retraced the path of the World War II prisoners of war in Borneo during the Sandakan Death March.

How a Tobruk Rat turned Pacific hero

AAP

NEIL Russell is turning 96 next month and he needs a walking stick to get around, but this extraordinary digger was on the winning side in two of the toughest WWII campaigns in the Middle East and the Pacific.

Captain Russell is one of a handful of surviving Rats of Tobruk, who successfully defended the crucial Libyan port and gave the German forces their first major setback of the war in 1941.
With little time to enjoy the victory, however, he was shipped off to Papua New Guinea, where he played his part in delivering the first blow to the advancing Japanese forces.
As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, he helped stop the Japanese from taking Port Moresby in the 1942 Battle of Milne Bay.
He was made a captain and after the war awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal - the second highest medal for valour behind the Victoria Cross.
The Brisbane resident, who turns 96 on May 18, says when the order came to fix bayonets and charge, his company "stormed the enemy stronghold".

"And the Japs shot off like a Bondi tram," he said.
His son Doug says his father's dry Aussie humour helped him deal with stressful, life-threatening moments.
"During the heat of battle, someone said to him, 'What's the time?'" he said.
"He said, 'Time for a Capstan' (a brand of popular cigarettes at the time)."
Capt Russell will take part in the Anzac Day march through Brisbane today from 10am (AEST).
The march will start at the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets.