Aust in for gas talks
The National, Monday December 15th, 2014
Australia will encourage Papua New Guinea to set up a sovereign wealth fund to take advantage of revenues from a new LNG project.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop flew to PNG yesterday to chair the annual Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum, and said the country’s booming economy will be a major focus of the talks.
Bishop will be accompanied by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, Defence Minister David Johnston and Justice Minister Michael Keenan.
Bishop said PNG was undergoing a “incredible energy renaissance” thanks to the windfalls from the US$19 billion (K48b) ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG project, which went online earlier in 2014.
The nation’s economy is the fastest growing in Asia, with forecasts increases of about 15 to 20%, she said. “Huge revenues will be coming into PNG,” she told Sky News.
“We want to work with them as economic partners to make sure that PNG has in place sovereign wealth funds.”