Chamber looking forward to work with new PM

The Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mines and Petroleum has congratulated the country’s eighth Prime Minister James Marape on his election yesterday.
In a statement, Chamber President Gerea Aopi said the resource industry looked forward to working with the new prime minister and his Government on matters concerning the industry.
“On behalf of the chamber, its 200-plus members and the resource industry, we congratulate Marape,” Aopi said.
“We look forward to working with Marape on many of the industry policies, particularly the long overdue revised Mining Act, the establishment of a Petroleum Resource Authority and re-visiting some of the sector’s taxation reforms.
“Stability on many of the fiscal and regulatory regimes is important to ensure ongoing investment in the sector.
“We welcome discussions on some of the country’s major projects in the pipeline such as the Wafi Golpu, Frieda River and the Papua LNG projects.
“The chamber and the industry would also like to thank outgoing Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for the partnership he had with the industry and the good work he had done during his term in the last eight years, particularly promoting investment in the resource sector.”
Marape yesterday said he has his own views about certain laws in the country regarding the resource, forestry and fisheries sectors.
He said project deals inked by the government previously would not be broken.
“We are not here to break legally binding (project) agreements,” Marape said.
“But those project agreements must be sanctioned … ticked off as prescribed by laws governing this nation, if we find that any project agreement whether it be PNG LNG project has not fully complied with prescribed provisions of law then we are open to review.
“We are not about breaking laws, we are about honouring existing laws in place.
“I have my own views about certain laws such as the Oil and Gas Act, the mining laws, Forestry Act and Fisheries Act, we expect investors to honour them.
“We will go through them one by one.
“The economy is bleeding.”