France-PNG to increase bilateral trade

Business

FRANCE and Papua New Guinea are expected to increase positive bilateral exchanges on the back of Total and its considerable investment in the upcoming Papua LNG project.
French ambassador Pascal Maubert said that French company Total had a good track record of engaging well with people and businesses of countries it operated in.
“The project by Total is a turning point, I would say, in the relationship between our two countries and I must say first of all that Total has very much understood the necessity to have a broad approach to the development of the project, including and especially the relationship with the local communities and the different aspects that are also important,” Maubert said.
“They have a good record of doing this in other countries that they are based all over the world.
“It also means that we as government have to take those different aspects into consideration.
“That will mean supporting country to country exchange such as education, the teaching of the French language and to complement the large investment of Total as it comes in here. We have to build a new relationship with this and that is something Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has understood when he went over to Paris to talk to the president and the minister for foreign affairs a few years back.
“Also, it is not only Total as there are many French companies that I have been in touch with that are in this region.
“They have noted their interest as they also understand that Papua New Guinea and its potential to grow in this region is greater and fundamentally different from other countries in the region.
“We as government have to allow for this to happen and Total coming into Papua New Guinea in this way is great way to begin looking at these potential as well.”