Abel predicts Apec will cap off recovery

Business

THE Apec Summit will cap off a year of recovery for Papua New Guinea in spectacular fashion, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel says.
Abel said Apec would be a culmination of an effort to bring focus, investment, tourism, and engagement to PNG and the Pacific through events such as the APC parliamentary meetings, the Pacific Games and Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup.
He said PNG was Australia’s closest friend and apart from general engagements, specific proposals are being prepared for prospective investments, climate or green funds, grant and concessional funding at Apec.
Abel was speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney about PNG in the year of Apec.
“PNG needs to deliberately transition to a new socio-economic paradigm by slowing its population growth rate and accelerating the education of its people to international standard,” he said.
“It is home to 15 per cent of the world’s tuna, it has the third-largest rainforest, 8 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, fertile soil and abundant water, and 800 cultures.
“Mineral and petroleum resources are to be partially converted into a sovereign wealth fund, from which only rents can be extracted, not capital. It should certainly be an aspiration anyway.
“Let us all continue to work together for a prosperous and stable region.”