Industrial parks for Sepik

National

By GYNNIE KERO
The West Sepik government has partnered a Chinese firm to develop two industrial parks worth billions at Vanimo and Green River, Governor Amkat Mai says.
Mai said a feasibility study for a concrete and steel factory in Vanimo was underway.
He said industrial park developments would also include downstream processing plants for sago and fish at Green River.
“We (government) have a very big project in Sandaun (West Sepik) called the Idam Siawi project.  It’s a logging area, its volume is about 789,000 hectares of forest left in PNG. That’s the biggest in PNG and we gave it to the Chinese.
“The Chinese developer is Viva, based in Guangdong province, Shenzhen city. “The company is going to do two industrial parks to develop Vanimo using the free trade zone concept.
“One will be in Vanimo to build a concrete and steel factory and the other will be in Green River, which will involve downstream processing of sago, timber, river fish, cocoa, oil palm and rubber – all those natural resources will be manufactured.
“It’s going to be a multi-billion kina project. It’s nearing materials now and the firm has a master plan for this,” Mai said.
“It will start soon, now they are collecting data for the forest, for the roads, river, incorporated land groups (ILG) registration. There are four blocks in there.
“What they will do is start with the first block and get forest clearance authority (FCA) certificate from PNG National Forest Authority. Once they get the FCA they will start next year. Now they’re only collecting data.
“They don’t want to import, so they will build these factories.
“Job opportunities for locals will be between 2000 and 3000 because there will be logging and factories going on,” Mai said.