Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru and the Governor for Sandaun, Tony Wouwou yesterday (Sunday December 11) agreed to share the cost of building a Trade Centre at Wutung.
The National Government through the ministry would fund the bore water supply system and sort out land proposed for the Trade Centre at Wutung while the provincial government would get the power lines from Vanimo to Wutung.
“PNG Power Limited had failed us by not getting the power lines from Vanimo and Wutung though we released funds for that when I was the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring in 2018,” said Maru.
He urged the provincial government to start working on the power lines as soon as possible.
“Water and power supply must reach Wutung for the place to operate so we can produce the goods to sell to Indonesia,” said Minister Maru.
“We currently do not have anything to sell in big quantities so we cannot sign any trade agreement with them; when we have the goods then we can trade with Indonesia so they sell their goods to us and we sell our goods to them.”
He added, “There has to be trade balance so we can benefit from the trade agreement. We must trade so that we can create employment opportunities for our youths in Vanimo but we will trade only when we are producing goods to trade so we can benefit. We cannot sign a deal that is one sided. We must have the enabling infrastructure to make it happen, for example, the industrial zone, processing zone, water supply and power supply.”
The first Trade Meeting between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea will be held next year to discuss agendas like security, bio security, trade and investment, type of goods to trade, currency, and shipping and air service agreement.
Sandaun Provincial Government agreed with Minister Maru for a possible flight route between the two countries from Makassar Indonesia to Vanimo, Lae, and Port Moresby.