Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, says he is happy with his most recent visit to China.
Minister Maru looked at possible locations in Shenzhen to open a new Trade Mission following the closure of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Trade Office in Taipei, Taiwan.
He met with the Shenzhen Government and private sector where an agreement was reached between them and the Ministry and the Department of International Trade and Investment for the new PNG Trade Mission to be in a very prestigious office building in Shenzhen.
“Under my Ministry, I intended to have this Trade Mission opened in October of this year. A team will visit Shenzhen in the coming weeks to finalize the negotiations on the office space and to cost out the whole setup and operation.
“The position of the trade commissioner will be advertised this week so a trade commissioner could be appointed as soon as possible. If all arrangements go well, we will invite Prime Minister Marape to open this new Trade Mission during his visit to China for the Belt and Road Initiative Leaders Meeting in Beijing,” said Minister Maru.
He says overall his trip to Hong Kong and mainland China was very successful.
“China is ready to invest in PNG in big ways in both the renewable and non-renewable sectors. My trip has laid the groundwork for key deliverables of the Marape-Rosso Government, which is the inaugural PNG-Asia Investment Conference, opening of PNG’s first Trade Mission in Shenzhen, and possibly a new Consulate in Guangzhou.”
Minister Maru said added that PNG is serious about its relationship with China.
“China is becoming PNG’s biggest trading partner. PNG’s current exports to China is valued at K5 billion, whilst China's total value of exports to PNG is worth K1.5 billion. With more mining and petroleum projects coming on board, China will continue to be our biggest market in the future.
“We have to consolidate and deepen our relationship with China in order to secure future market not only for our resources industries but also our non-renewable sectors of forestry, fisheries, and agriculture,” said Minister Maru.
“With our Government’s focus to follow the path of Special Economic Zones, China is the appropriate partner to learn best practices from given their own success which led to China from being an agrarian economy to one of the economic superpowers of the world today. We can learn a lot from China in terms of technology and skills transfer. This is a whole new unexplored area.”