Bureaucrats encouraged to lure more investors

INVESTORS are still knocking on the Government’s door to invest in the mining and petroleum sectors, an unprecedented boom that was described by the Prime Minister as a success story.
Sir Michael Somare yesterday encouraged bureaucrats to put together “bait” in terms of tax incentives to lure more investors into the country.
He said at the heads of departments and statutory organisations dedication service, that in the resource sector, “we have created unprecedented interest in our mining and petroleum industry”.
“So suddenly we have an influx of people from the east, west, north and south, calling at my office and at different ministries wishing to invest in the mining and petroleum sector.”
He said in the last 15 to 18 months, it had been a success story for Papua New Guinea’s mining and petroleum industry.
“Up until Monday, people are still knocking on our doors, wishing to invest in Papua New Guinea.
“Our job as civil servants is to make the conditions attractive and conducive. We have to look at our tax policies in so far as putting in the ‘bait’ in terms of tax incentives to lure more investors into the country.
“We are not talking about making only money, we are talking about the ‘more you invest the more opportunities you create for jobs’.”
He said one thing the Government lacked was job opportunities.
“It saddens me that we are losing well trained pilots, engineers and skilled people and the onus is on us to make it attractive to retain our people in our country.”
Sir Michael said the Ramu nickel project was coming up and the Government would soon be announcing further agreements with other partners in the next few weeks.
“As in all other sectors, we need the public service to follow through on all Government initiatives.”