Story from:
Post Courier
20 Oct 2023
The Minister for lnternational Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, says Papua New Guinea (PNG) needs investments in all sectors and not just in the mining and petroleum sector.
Mr Maru said this after the hosting of the inaugural PNG-Asia Investment Conference in Hong Kong on October 16-17, 2023.
"We need investments across all sectors in order to create jobs. From the presentations at the PNG-Asia lnvestment Conference, we learnt that ExxonMobil PNG only has 3000 employees after construction phase, whilst New Britain Palm Oil, which is the biggest agriculture company in PNG, has 29,000 permanent employees.
We also learnt that one fish cannery can create 5000 jobs. If we have 10 canneries in the PMIZ we will create over 50,000 new jobs.
"The agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and the manufacturing sector will provide mass creation of jobs.
That is why we are going to China to look for investors to come and invest in this space. and we also continue to encourage local investors to partner such investors.
"Our biggest national challenge is unemployment. We have the highest level of unemployment since independence.
Our state of law and order is largely attributed to our very high level of unemployment. This is why we are desperately trying to market our country as an investment destination, and we are specifically looking for investors to come and invest in the critical sectors that will create more jobs," Mr Maru said.
The extractive sector brings in the revenue and we must re-invest it in the non-extractive sector to create jobs and for an inclusive and sustainable economic development," he said.
Mr Maru said the hosting of the PNG- Asia Investment Conference in Hong Kong was the start of a new beginning in PNG's relationship with the People's Republic of China.