Aust seeking ways to support budget financing for PNG

National

AUSTRALIA will work swiftly to find the most appropriate way to support budget financing for Papua New Guinea and its State-owned entities reforms, Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said.
Cormann told the press conference after the 27th PNG-Australia Ministerial Forum on Monday that they were not considering this through the aid budget.
“We have asked our officials to come up with appropriate options for considerations by the respective governments.”
Sam Basil, speaking in his capacity on Monday as Treasury Minister, said there were two requests; one was for the Australian aid and the other was for SOEs reforms.
“Both requests will require interactions with multilaterals,” he said.
“The other request was for foreign exchange swap between the two Central Banks of Australia and PNG.
“Those are working in progress.”
Cormann said the highlight of the budget support was the value of technical support that Australia had provided to help PNG meet its financing needs including the secure World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank) loans and assisting PNG with its inaugural Sovereign Bond issue last year.
“As a neighbouring friend Australia continues work in partnership with PNG and continues to do so in good faith swiftly and efficiently as possible to deal with economic and financial matters that have been identified,” he said.
“It is important for us to engage with each other in the way that is fully respectful of PNG as an independent and sovereign nation.”