John Kasu

Under the Fisheries Act 1998, the amended roles and responsibility of the PNG National Fisheries Authority is to manage, control and regulate all PNG’s fisheries resources with the provision of regulating and providing quality and safety standards for the capture, storing, transporting and processing of fish and fishery products for domestic consumption and for export.

The facility falls under the Redevelopment of Town Markets Projects funded by the Governments of PNG and Japan.

Recently a joint team comprising of National Fisheries Authority (NFA), Milne Bay Provincial Management Team, and Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) recently visited Alotau to assess the full construction of the Facility.

The Project began in 2017 with Japan Government allocated K33 Million.

The Japan Government component has been completed while the PNG Government component will continue to next year, and anticipated to be completed in May 2020.

Lupari was speaking after he was briefed recently by National Fisheries Authority Managing Director, John Kasu, on the progress of the implementation of the rebates scheme adopted this year.

The scheme was introduced by the government after a study found that most tuna caught in PNG waters were sent offshore and not processed in PNG-based factories.

As a result, jobs and millions of dollars in export earnings were lost to those countries that processed PNG’s tuna, notably the Philippines and Thailand.