Prime Minister

Marape said this when he officially opened a one week workshop on OIE Performance Veterinary Gap Analysis Mission, hosted by the PNG National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority in Port Moresby on Monday.

PNG’s potential lies in selling livestock and organic food to the Asian Market as well as the world.

Marape said his aim is for PNG to be known as an organic food hub for the Pacific and the rest of the world.

He urged Papua New Guineans to put on their thinking cap and change the way they have been doing business in the last 44 years.

He expressed this sentiment during the 10-year celebration of partnership between three landowner companies and the PNG LNG project.

ExxonMobil PNG on August 8^th hosted board and senior managers of the three landowner companies (lancos) of Hides Gas Development Company, Laba Holdings Ltd and Trans Wonderland Ltd at the PNG LNG plant site to celebrate a decade of partnership with the LNG project. Also at the celebration was fellow landowner and Prime Minister James Marape.  

The former minister of finance, Marape, became prime minister on May 30 following the resignation of his predecessor, Peter O’Neill.

This marked the end of O’Neill’s nearly eight years in office, and brought to a close a period of policy disputes and defections – including Marape’s own – within government ranks.

This was the message Prime Minister James Marape conveyed to Australia during his visit.

The Prime Minister returned from his trip this afternoon at the Jackson’s International VIP Terminal.

Speaking to media, he said a wide range of topics were covered with our neighbours, including the imbalance in trade, improving PNG’s local economy, the Manus issue as well as experiencing firsthand how local industries in Western Australia operate.

On Friday the PM addressed over 300 investors in Sydney, who he said were interested in PNG.

The National Housing Corporation has a huge asset base however, all properties are not fully accounted for.

Most properties have run down and are unfit for human occupation.

Housing Minister Justin Tkatchenko said: “This is the problem, we don’t know how many properties, how many houses NHC and also under NHEL (National Housing Estate Ltd) actually own.”

“My reference towards investors meeting us at where our law is, refers to projects coming up for review. In my view, and I stand to be corrected, our laws are tailored to attract investors, and (PNG) is not green field in areas of mining and oil and gas. We produce world class mining projects,” said Marape.

The Prime Minister’s response followed a series of questions raised by Member for Rabaul Dr Allan Marat, with regards to the number of PNG owned companies who specialise in the determining process of minable non-renewable resources.

His response came after Member for Moresby North-West, Sir Mekere Morauta, asked in Parliament if the company’s financial books can be made public.

Sir Mekere said: “There is a shortfall of K974 million as per the report from Treasury, and a K2 billion (shortfall), also according to Treasury. Why is this money still sitting out there? Prime Minister it’s reported that growth profit for Kumul Petroleum for 2017 was K1.4 billion but expenses, donations, debt payment and impairment and other costs, ate that K1 billion with only K300 million to be paid to the state.

That equates to a little over 50 percent of the money that is found in our country every financial year.

The Prime Minister has urged senior public servants to raise the bar, considering the amount of money spent on them from the Waigani Public Accounts.

Marape issued the challenge at a meeting he organised for Ministers and Departmental Heads at the International Convention Centre in Port Moresby, on the 20th of June.

Prime Minister James Marape told the business community that everyone in this country, including businesses and politicians, will be bound by the law.

Speaking at the Speakers Investment Summit in Port Moresby, Marape said his government intends to remove impediments that hinder the flow of business.

“Gone are the days where you will think that you owe a favour to a politician for you to push your papers through,” said the PM. “We want to remove impediments in the system so that your project submissions, your dealing with government is done with less blockages.

This was the statement made by Prime Minister James Marape during today’s 2nd Speakers Investment Summit in Port Moresby, where he reiterated their goal of revamping the Government’s system to ensure there is efficiency and effectiveness when collecting taxes.

“Most, if not, all of you in this room this morning are regular, habitual, good corporate citizens of our country,” he said. “You pay your fair share of tax. But we believe that there’s enough room for collections that we are missing right now and that is something that we intend to do.