The National Fisheries Authority (NFA), under the direction of Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister, Lino Tom, is taking lead in making Manus Province become a special tax-free economic zone in PNG.
This is as per one of the Prime Minister’s priorities.
Managing Director John Kasu assigned a team, who was on ground recently, to meet with the provincial fisheries authority and the administration to assess how best fisheries can contribute to a major port infrastructure project that is set to take advantage of the Government’s recent announcement for the province to be a tax haven.
The team has met with Manus Governor Charlie Benjamin to acquire specific directions on how NFA can capture his province’s development goals as well as providing ideas on activities Fisheries can be involved in within the overall domestication policy of the Government.
NFA is considering a suit of development options, including the potential of transshipment activities, fuel depot, support services, local purse seine operations, onshore processing and targetted training and capacity building.
“Tuna ranching and other potential opportunities will be considered in conjunction with the fisheries port infrastructure project so as to further empower local participation, improve food security and improve the general livelihood of our people,” said Kasu.
“These are considered to be fisheries contributions towards throughput that can be secured towards this anticipated port economy that will be underpinned by this major infrastructure project.
“Though Manus is in a strategic zone for offshore fishing operations in the Pacific region, there are other regions too that are in the strategic zone and that is where NFA will assist in ensuring Manus is more competitive than the other zones.
“The Government has welcomed the opportunity for NFA to be part of the team that would contribute further to the terms of reference and other related developments going forward for the project in Manus,” Kasu added.
(NFA officers and the Manus Provincial Government team out at sea at N’Drauke, locating the proposed site during scoping for the Manus project)