Change, growth eyed for PNG

Business

THE Australia-PNG Business Council held its annual general meeting last Thursday in Port Moresby where 15 elections to committees were held.
Council president Phil Franklin told The National: “We presided over normal business which is the minutes from last year and ratified and approved the accounts from the previous year. There was 15 elections of our executive committee members. A couple of people have moved on and a couple have come back through re-election.”
The new ones included a representative from Qantas which he said had always been a great supporter of the council.
Also coming in is Adrian Hughes, the chief executive of Westpac Bank.
“We also had a quarterly meeting which is where we do all our general business,” Franklin said. “So the Australia-PNG Business Council focuses on the bilateral relationship between our two countries. We look at things that affect trade and things that affect the growth of business in Papua New Guinea.”
Council vice-president Richard Flynn said the Council looked forward to being a medium for the commerce development and enhancement in both countries.
“Australia represents the largest commercial investment in Papua New Guinea and we are here to assist and cooperate with business and the government to strengthen that and we look forward to continuing that relationship on a commercial level,” Flynn said.
“We think that we play a good intermediary between the PNG and Australian governments in the commercial sectors in both countries.
“Our council is based in Papua New Guinea and we are familiar with doing business here and we look forward to doing that in 2017 and 2018.”