United Kingdom

PNG urged to link up with ‘UK coffee generation’

In an interview with Business Advantage PNG, PNG’s High Commissioner to the UK, Winnie Kiap, says PNG has to tap into a growing young population of coffee drinkers in the UK.

‘They are becoming a big nation of coffee drinkers because the young population now prefers to be identified with coffee than with tea.  It’s a coffee generation. So that’s the market that we have to target,” said Kiap.

The announcement by Kiap follows two successful trade delegations which have boosted awareness.

UK doctors encourage smokers to use E-cigarettes

That's according to the Royal College of Physicians, which has just published a report recommending smokers switch to E-cigs.

The docs want to quash the "increasingly common misconception" that vaping is dangerous, and said smokers should be "reassured and encouraged" to switch to the gadgets over traditional tobacco products.

This counters recent research that claimed E-cigarettes were no safer than normal ones. Researchers at the University of California claimed that the vapour from E-cigarettes damaged the smoker's DNA in ways that could cause cancer.

Driverless cars could hit UK roads as soon as next year

Chancellor George Osborne has told The Guardian that autonomous vehicles could hit British roads as early as next year.

"Driverless cars could represent the most fundamental change to transport since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Naturally, we need to ensure safety, and that's what the trials we are introducing will test," he said.

Sections of UK roads are expected to be closed off to allow trials to take place. These tests are in addition to the driverless car research already taking place in Bristol, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Greenwich.

Positive comments for PNG murals overseas

English artist Dale Grimshaw, who has painted these murals throughout the United Kingdom and Sweden, said the response he gets from the public is pretty amazing.

The murals show the faces of PNG men dressed in colorful traditional attire mainly from the Highlands Region.

His PNG murals have mainly been spread across the UK in places like London, Bristol and Cardiff.

Grimshaw has never lived in PNG but has a friend who visited the country and was inspired by the photographs and imagery.

$74 million yacht too big to berth in harbour

The yacht, named simply ‘M5’, is a sloop-rigged super yacht launched in 2003 as the Mirabella. 

The 75 metre yacht, which hails from the United Kingdom, arrived Thursday last week but was unable to berth at Avatiu harbour because of its 97m mast height which would run it foul of airspace laws.  

The yacht’s captain, Don Anderson, said the yacht had cost about US$50m to build. Anderson is accompanied by 15 other crew on the M5’s maiden world tour and the super yacht will be here for two weeks before leaving for French Polynesia.

PM O’Neill has audience with Queen Elizabeth

The audience took place in what is known as the “White Room” in the castle and afforded the Queen and the Prime Minister an opportunity to share perspectives of significance for Papua New Guinea and the Commonwealth.

The Prime Minister said it is not protocol to discuss the specific details of the audience with Her Majesty, but he said he was again impressed the Queen’s depth of knowledge and fondness for Papua New Guinea.

“Her Majesty is very familiar with the history as well as current developments in Papua New Guinea,” PM O’Neill said.