Clarence Hoot

Mr Mombi was speaking during the Geographical Indication (GI) Awareness Conference held by the EU Funded UN Joint STREIT Programme, in partnership with the PNG Investment Promotion Authority for 2 days in Port Moresby recently.

Pointing out to the country's vision to build a modern climate-smart business-oriented agriculture sector with diverse products and international cooperation in this sector, Mr Mombi explained GI as an intellectual property certification that helps develop brand names for traditional original products to feed the overseas markets.

The MOU was signed today by NASFUND CEO Ian Tarutia, and IPA Managing Director, Clarence Hoot.

NASFUND is the first private sector agency to sign an MOU with the IPA , that enables the Fund to have a permanent presence at the IPA’s registration Kiosk.

Through the MOU, both organizations will share relevant employer database information, that can be used to ensure that companies who register with IPA also sign-up to superannuation, for the benefit of their employees.

The MOU also allows NASFUND to share employer data through IPA offices throughout the country.

This was revealed by Investment Promotion Authority acting managing director, Clarence Hoot, during the PNG Investment Conference in Brisbane.

Hoot said Malaysia has replaced Australia, who is now sitting at third place.

“In the recent past there has been a huge increase in Malaysian investment, so the latest statistics we have Malaysia in front, followed closely by Singapore and Australia third.

“Where it (Malaysian investment) goes into is mainly forestry sector, mining and energy, and agriculture is slowly cropping up as well.”

The move is part of IPA’s endeavour to bring quality and efficient services to its clients.

“The IPA wants to ensure that the best available registry services are provided to the PNG public,” said IPA acting managing director, Clarence Hoot.

Technical assistance to transfer the registry is being provided by the pacific private sector development initiative, a program undertaken by the Asian Development Bank in partnership with the governments of Australia and New Zealand.

Investment Promotion Authority acting managing director, Clarence Hoot, said since the year began, they have had visits and discussions with potential investors from several countries.

He said this shows that the country remains a healthy investment destination.

Clarence stated that the first group from Japan were focused in the oil and energy sector.

Another potential investor from Sri Lanka was interested in the production of coconut from East New Britain Province.