The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru said the capital market will see major reforms over the next few months to modernize the capital market and improve governance in the industry.
As Minister responsible for the Capital Market of Papua New Guinea along with its regulator the Securities Commission of Papua New Guinea (SCPNG), Maru said that reforms are critical as the Marape-Rosso government sets out to grow the capital market in Papua New Guinea. It is a key vehicle to mobilize domestic capital for critical investments, to grow the economy of the country.
“While our government is going all out to attract direct foreign investors, we must develop our domestic capital market to be a major source of capital raising in the domestic market. The government needs to attract more PNG institutional investors in many of our large investments in our proposed Special Economic Zones in the country,” said Minister Maru.
Work has already started with the assistance of the Australian Government who have engaged ADB at the cost of K1.3 million to assist the SCPNG by way of technical assistance. The reforms will be broad and will cover; SME capital raising platforms, equity crowd funding, debt securities issuance, and reforms in many schemes.
After the completion of the review of the Securities Commissions Act, major changes to include the complete separation of the Board and Management of the Commission where there will no longer be an Executive Chairman. The amended legislation in 2023 will then define clearly Board and Management functions and powers.
Minister Maru added that the name of the Securities Commission would also change to avoid public confusion over security companies.
The Minister has also written to the Acting Chairman of the SCPNG, James Joshua asking him to remove all stockbrokers or market intermediaries to have any shareholding in the Port Moresby Stock Exchange.
He said their shares should be sold to Papua New Guinea shareholders who have no conflicts as market intermediaries in the capital market in Papua New Guinea.
They have three months to share sell their shares as part of the Marape-Rosso government’s clean-up of the capital market under the reforms of the capital market.