BSP expanding into Asia

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE Bank of South Pacific is expanding into Cambodia, according to group chairman Sir Kostas Constaninou.
After the annual general meeting on Friday, he said they had completely covered the Pacific following the acquisition of  Westpac’s assets in Vanuatu.
“We basically completed the Pacific,” Sir Kostas said.
“Then we said, where do we go next? BSP needs to expand.
“We want to be the biggest bank and make a mark in Asia.
“One of the things that we looked at was setting up asset financing in the Asia region.
“We had consultants who came on board, had a look and went through all the countries and the first country that we are doing a joint venture is Cambodia.
“From Cambodia, once that is up and running, the next country will be to Laos.
“We are potentially looking at Myanmar and we are looking at Vietnam.”
Sir Kostas said the bank wanted to have Papua New Guineans holding key positions in the bank.
“BSP is an institution that believes in all Papua New Guineans” he said.
“We are doing extremely well (because) we have great management.
“All our divisional managers outside Port Moresby are Papua New Guineans.
“The expats only look after the top end.
“We are very proud of putting our Papua New Guineans in key positions.
“They run the bank.
“Go to any of the branches in the whole country, you will see Papua New Guineans.”