Member for Vanimo-Green Belden Namah has called on the government to intervene to save thousands of jobs that have been lost in at least two fish processing factories in the country.
Namah called for swift and urgent government intervention after the media reported the laying off of 5,000 workers at the Majestic Seafood processing plant in Lae two weeks ago due to "lack of fish".
Earlier this year, it was reported that RD Tuna in Madang also laid off hundreds of workers at its processing plant for the same reason.
Both Majestic Seafood and RD Tuna are foreign owned companies given license to operate in the country.
Their processing facilities are among six fish loining and canning plants that currently operate in the country.
“I’m very concerned that thousands of workers are being laid off and left with no form of income to support their families, particularly at this time of great economic hardship.
“The excuse being given by the companies is that there is lack of fish, or the access fee charged under the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) was too high, therefore workers are being laid off and production scaled back.
“This is not good enough. The companies seem to be making excuses to return to the old days when they fished in our waters for free and shipped all the fish for processing in Thailand and the Philippines, creating employment, export earnings, and tax revenue in those countries rather than in PNG, where the fish is caught.
“We cannot allow our resources to benefit the economy of other countries. The Government must put its foot down and be firm.”
Namah said the Government's emphasis on downstream processing for our natural resources was the right way to go to grow and make the economy more resilient.
“The fisheries sector has six fish processing plants in the country employing thousands of Papua New Guineans, almost half of whom are women and girls.
“The onshore processing of tuna by these factories provide employment, bring exports earnings into the country, provide spin off business opportunities in the localities they operate in, and provide revenue to the government through taxes.
“We should be looking at ways, working with the operators, to ensure these processing plants operate at full capacity so the benefits are increased to optimum level.”
Namah added that some of the difficulties the operators were complaining about was already being offered through the financial incentives in the Production Rebates Scheme introduced in 2017.
“As I understand it, these companies receive US$400 for every metric tonne of fish processed in their plants. That's a very generous incentive. On top of that, the National Fisheries Authority has announced a 30 percent discount in access fees (VDS) for boats fishing in our archipelagic waters and exclusive Economic Zone, to offset rise in fuel and other costs.
“If these boats are connected to the processing plants here, then they are receiving double incentive from the government.
“Therefore, there should be no workers laid off. Instead, we should be seeing more workers being employed in the processing facilities.
“l call on the government to urgently intervene in this industry. The National Fisheries Authority must be directed to investigate and establish what exactly is going on.
“If the foreign operators do not want to abide by our rules, and do not accept the very generous incentives already offered to them, then we must let them go, and be prepared to buy them out and take over the fishing and processing facilities.
“It is not rocket science. We can do this ourselves.”