The Papua New Guinea Government delegation to India began official engagements on Monday in New Delhi with various sectoral leaders and government agencies of India.
The Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, met with the National Institute of Transforming India and extended an invitation to them to visit PNG and also participate at PNG's inaugural National Planning Summit.
Also known as NITI Aayog, the National Institute of Transforming India is the policy think tank of the Government of India.
It was established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals to ensure the cooperative involvement of the State Government of India in the economic policy making process using a bottom-up approach.
At this meeting, the PNG delegation learned how India was able to overcome and minimise its development challenges and emerge as a thriving economy with surplus food stock into millions of tons, internet penetration of 95 percent ramping up India's digital economy and quality education, among many other sucesses.
India identified key areas that would push the economy and focused their plans in this regard. Minister Maru said PNG has much to learn from India's experiences.
The Minister for Information, Communication & Technology and Energy, Sam Basil, met with the Interim Secretariat of the Institute of Solar Alliance (ISA) where prospects for PNG were discussed.
While PNG is not yet a signatory of ISA, Minister Basil said an NEC submission on a National Energy Policy is presently pending approval. Its major focus is renewable energy, therefore, an opportunity exists for a cooperation with ISA with a model unique to PNG.
The main benefits include cost saving on fossil fuels and energy efficiency on the back of scaled up solar projects.
Minister Maru also addressed the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Monday evening, where members from FICCI expressed keen interest to do business with Papua New Guinea.
The PNG delegation interacted with representatives of all of India's key sectors and industry players with the intent to gauge what PNG has to offer to India and vice versa.
The Governor of West New Britain Province, Sasindran Muthuvel, also addressed the audience and shared his insights and experiences of doing business in PNG.
Minister Maru reiterated that PNG and India have had bilateral relations since 1972, however, there are no major investments to show for this long relationship.
"Our message is clear, we are here to do business," Minister Maru said.
More engagements will be held and at the end of the week, a joint communique is expected to be signed by the governments of India and Papua New Guinea.
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