Prince Andrew: 'Huge opportunities' for trade between UK and Papua New Guinea

Comments by HRH Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, at the closing of the UK-Papua New Guinea Trade and Investment Forum, London, April 24,  2018.

“All of you are here because you want to know what Papua New Guinea is about.
“I hope that you have heard from the Prime Minister what the opportunities actually are on the ground.

Longtime PNG tourism operator Sir Bob Bates talking with Prince Andrew at the UK-Papua New Guinea Trade and Investment Forum in London on Tuesday. With them is Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.

“The conversations that I have had, and the conversations other members of my family have had over the last week, give a huge amount of confidence in the Commonwealth’s ability to work together in so many different areas.
“Investment and trade are just part of a whole series of activities the commonwealth is good at.
“You have had an exposed time today of concentration on what is available in Papua New Guinea in the coming years.
“I can see that there are huge opportunities.
“I hope today has been useful, I would like to say to the Prime Minister thank you very much indeed for the numerous offers that I have had to go to Papua New Guinea over the last few years.
“I will be going back to Papua New Guinea in the not too distant future.
“Thank you for your participation today.
“I hope to visit you when you have made your investment, increased you investment, traded more actively and increased the amount of actual trade that is going on between the UK and Papua New Guinea.
“It has been a pleasure visiting your country in the past and I look forward to visiting on many occasions into the future.”

Agriculture and tourism opportunities focus at UK-PNG Investment Forum

Agriculture and tourism provide substantial future growth opportunities for foreign investment in Papua New Guinea, and British investors are being given the opportunity to play an active role in these growth sectors.

Prince Andrew with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill at the forum.

Speaking to more than 150 participants at the UK-Papua New Guinea Trade and Investment Forum in London this week,  Prime Minister  Peter O’Neill  said alongside the resources sector, agriculture and tourism expansion was broadening the economic base of the nation.
“For many years, the Papua New Guinea economy has been based on the resources sector,” he said when opening the forum.
“We have delivered the most efficient LNG project in the world, and now with our partners we are initiating our second LNG project with Total from France.
“Demand for LNG will continue to increase in the next 30 years and this provides opportunities for investment with a healthy return.
“At the same time, as an economy, we must broaden our horizons so that we are not held captive to the boom-and-bust cycles of the global resource sector.
“Over the past few years we have been broadening the base of our economy focusing on sectors such as agriculture and tourism to be the key drivers of the economy in the years to come.
“Our people were some of the first in human history to establish organised agriculture.
“We have some of the most fertile soil in the world and a great landmass available for agriculture.
“We need to mobilise the capital that is needed to open up opportunities to produce more food for our growing population, and access the huge export markets in Asia.
“We are commercially producing milk, expanding production of cocoa and coffee and embarking on producing more of our own rice.
“Just as an example, we have demonstrated that double the yield of rice per hectare can be grown in our soil than is possible in other parts of South East Asia.”
O'Neill further highlighted the substantial potential PNG had as a tourist destination.
“Unlike many parts of the world where tourism is just one product based on sand and the ocean, Papua New Guinea has much more to offer," he said.
“We are a very culturally rich country, with a wide diversity of places where people from around the world can visit and engage with our people.
“As one off our tourism pioneers, Bob Bates, who is here with us today, will tell you, Papua New Guinea is a country that once people have visited they want to come back.
“Our Government is embarking on a programme that will provide incentives to increase investment in tourism.
“We are piloting a programme in East New Britain Province, working with landowners and Mineral Resources Development Company, and we are developing a master plan that will encourage investment in the tourism industry.”
 O’Neill told the forum that expanding opportunities in agriculture and tourism, requires ongoing investment in infrastructure.
“To grow future sectors we are investing heavily in new roads, bridges and airports that will get agricultural goods to market and enable tourists to travel in our country," he said.
O'Neill thanked the government of the United Kingdom, and the Duke of York, HRH Prince Andrew, for their commitment to strengthening economic relations between the two countries.
“Papua New Guinea’s relationship with the United Kingdom is growing" he said.
“I thank the UK Government for expanding more opportunities in Europe, and Papua New Guinea will continue to work with investors from the United Kingdom to increase opportunities, particularly in oil and gas, mining, agriculture and tourism
“Papua New Guinea has proven that it will deliver strong return on investments
 “We have demonstrated the political stability that our country is experiencing, and this is essential for business to expand investment.”
At the conclusion of the forum, O’Neill further extended his invitation to investors to visit PNG as part of APEC in 2018, and attend the APEC CEO Summit that will take place in Port Moresby in November.
UK-Papua New Guinea Trade and Investment Forum was opened by the Prime Minister on April 24, and included a key-note address by the British Foreign Minister, Mark Field MP, and was closed by the Duke of York, HRH Prince Andrew.
Other speakers at the forum included PNG  Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato, Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani, and representatives of leading PNG businesses.

ICTSI agrees to reinstate PNG dock workers' pay

porttechnology.org | April 25, 2018

Workers at South Pacific International Container Terminal Limited (SPICT), Lae, Papua New Guinea. Image courtesy of ICTSI

The PNG Maritime and Transport Workers Union (PNGMTWU) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), the Philippine port operator, following building pressure from the local workforce and international sources.

ICTSI and PNG officers after signing the agreement. Image courtesy of ICTSI

ITF president and chair of the ITF docker’s section, Paddy Crumlin, said: “This Memorandum of Agreement is a significant victory for workers who were looking down the barrel of a 50% wage cut.
“The ITF congratulates the PNGMTWU and its members for digging in and demanding the pay and conditions that PNG dockworkers have fought for over decades.
“However the ITF remains concerned that 213 workers are still without a contract after receiving termination notices from the former concession holder at Port Moresby.
“The transition of these jobs to the new Motukea terminal needs to be urgently addressed by ICTSI.”
The agreement follows months of disruption and protests after the ICTSI was awarded concession agreements for the operation PNG’s two major ports in October 2017, and cut in worker’s pay down to the legal minimum — impacting overall working conditions.
Paddy Crumlin continued: “This sits in sharp contrast to ICTSI’s industrial relations practices elsewhere in the world. For this to be real progress ICTSI must extend this respect for workers’ across the entirety of the company’s global operations.
“The ITF is prepared to work with ICTSI to progress the fundamental rights of all workers across its global network, to end the exploitation of its global workforce, recognise trade unions and stop undermining the wages, conditions and safety of its workforce.”
The ITF recently released a shareholder advisory note detailing governance issues at the ICTSI, and recently exposed the company when an Indonesian worker died at its facility in Jakarta in November 2017.

Papua New Guinea: Highlands Earthquake Snapshot - Community Messaging Uptake (as of 23 April 2018)

reliefweb.int | April 23, 2018

Digicel network users in Hela and Southern Highlands Province continue to receive life-saving messages and access pre-recorded automated voice messages. Over 38,000 callers have listened in on the automated voice messages in 2 weeks. An increase of 20,000 calls were made this week targeting 50,000 automated voice messages.Click for full report.

Papua New Guinea: Measles - Emergency Plan of Action Final Report (Operation n° MDRPG006)


reliefweb.int | April 30, 2018

Summary:

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) was granted on 1 November 2017 for CHF 88,808 to the PNGRCS. The DREF reached 9,132 people, of which 57 cases were identified as directly reached through vaccination/mobilisation messages; over 50,000 people were indirectly benefited from social mobilisation campaign in 33 villages.

Since 19 October, no new measles cases were reported and the epidemic is completely under control. The declaration of measles outbreak was lifted on 19 November and the Department of Health has since diverted the focus to a “mopup” Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign. The Vanimo-Green District Health Manager requested the PNGRCS volunteers to focus on social mobilization in the three target areas. Changes in the operation’s targets and activities were reported in Operation Update -1. These included scaling down the target numbers from 60,000 to 50,000 people and adding a new activity - mass awareness campaign through radio programming.

With the DREF allocation, PNGRCS met the needs of affected people and implemented a strategy that included hygiene information dissemination and community awareness to minimize or contain the spread of measles over the three-month timeframe. The scope and budget for this operation enabled the targeted population of approximately over 9,000 people to be reached directly, and a further 50,000 people indirectly.

The implementation of activities for the operation was successfully concluded by 31 January 2018. A total of CHF 45,674 was returned to DREF. The final financial report is available here.

Exxon Mobil offers Papua New Guinea LNG cargo for May delivery to N.Asia: traders

by Jessica Jaganathan, reuters.com
April 24, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. energy major Exxon Mobil has offered a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from its recently restarted Papua New Guinea plant for delivery into the Japan, Korea, Taiwan (JKT) region in May, two traders with knowledge of the matter said.

Exxon Mobil has offered the cargo on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis, they said on Tuesday, asking not to be identified.

Bids are due on April 25 and are valid until April 27. The cargo will be delivered on the Kumul LNG tanker, one of the traders said.

The PNG LNG plant was recently restarted after a major earthquake triggered a shutdown in February.

Papua New Guinea's Kutubu blend crude returns to market after two-month hiatus

by Norazlina Juma'at, platts.com
April 24, 2018

Papua New Guinea's Kutubu Blend crude has returned to the spot market after a near two-month hiatus, with April, May and June-loading cargoes appearing shortly after production restarted, trade sources Tuesday said.

Production of Kutubu blend was halted on February 26 after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake led to the closure of facilities involved in the production of the grade.

Market sources said there was an April-loading cargo that had been taken by BP. The seller of the cargo is not known, but prior to the earthquake, BP was heard to have bought a cargo loading over April 23-27 from Oil Search.

In addition, ExxonMobil was heard to be offering a May-loading spot cargo of Kutubu blend last week, two traders at a trading house and an Asian refiner said.

There were also two June-loading cargoes that were heard on offer, with Oil Search heard to be the seller of one of the cargoes, another two traders said.

This could not be confirmed with Oil Search and ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil was later heard to have withdrawn its offer for the May-loading cargo, while the June-loading cargoes were heard to have been sold, market sources said.

ExxonMobil might have been offering the May-loading cargo initially due to issues at its Singapore refinery, market sources said. The oil major typically takes its cargoes into its own system, though market sources said it occasionally offers its cargoes to the spot market.

ExxonMobil could not be reached on the status of its refinery.

Traders have been widely anticipating the return of Kutubu Blend crude to the spot market following notices of production restarting from Kutubu blend stakeholders.

Oil Search had said in a notice on April 3 that operations had resumed at its Kutubu Central Processing Facility and that it had restarted production from some of the wells at the Kutubu oil field.

This was followed by a statement from ExxonMobil on February 12 that it had restarted production from the PNG LNG project two weeks ahead of schedule. Condensates from the PNG LNG project are one of the streams that make up Kutubu Blend.