Chance to be part of giant

COUNTLESS times we have gone supported our landowners and their claims of being left out of the picture when it comes to distribution of the proceeds of the harvest of their resources.
We are talking here about landowning communities around mines, oil wells, and fisheries and forestry projects.
Yet there is another side this coin that does not attract much discussion.
Where are our landowners putting the little that does filter down to them?
By little, we mean the billions of Kina that have gone to landowning communities from Bougainville to Kutubu and everywhere else in between.
There is virtually no evidence of any major investment that the landowners have put into long term projects that will survive the resource projects and sustain future generations from the project sites.
It is important therefore for Government to focus on helping landowners invest their royalty and other payments carefully.
One option that is just making its presence felt is the local bourse.
The PNG Stock Exchange on Oct 27 announced a service known as PETS Depository Interests while listing American miner Newmont.
It is an exciting new development in business and investment in the country because such opportunities for Papua New Guineans to invest directly in overseas corporations, some of whom have significant interests here, has not been there previously.
For the local stock exchange, this new development represents a significant step in our providing investors with more diverse and accessible opportunities that ultimately contribute to the growth and development of the PNG capital market.
Shares, stocks and government bonds are perhaps better and logical investment avenues for many Papua New Guineans including of course landowner entities who are supposedly the custodians and beneficiaries of investments in the mining and petroleum sectors.
Sadly though, it is evident in areas hosting major mining and hydrocarbon projects such as in Southern Highland and Hela, a lot of investment opportunities have been squandered.
Millions of Kina in royalties and other landowner benefits has been largely locked up in Port Moresby or has grown wings and escaped to foreign lands.
As the country’s status in the regional mining and energy markets becomes increasingly prominent, resource landowners must somehow learn to move away from being passive recipients of royalties only but seek active participation in serious investment.
It is rather illogical for the custodians of major resource projects to remain in their state of dependency on the State and project developers.
It is of greater benefit for them to become active participants in the various stages of project development and value chain in the production and sale of the resource.
Landowner participation has been relegated to fringe or allied business activities.
Generally speaking, Papua New Guineans including many of the well-educated might be illiterate in financial matters like trading in stock markets and bonds.
However, by indirectly trading through stock markets such as the PNGSX, their money is left to experts who can better manage it to earn more.
That should be the option for any landowner groups to enjoy better returns from their resources rather than merely collecting rent from project developers.
Even when the money does land in their hands, it is often wasted and benefits only a handful of outspoken leaders while whole communities are left wondering where the money has gone to.
Through the Mineral Resources Development Company, project landowners currently have equity in the Ok Tedi mine, the Ramu nickel and cobalt mine and Porgera gold mine.
The combined value of these interests constitute quite a handsome sum by any PNG landowner group’s reckoning.
History has shown that being passive recipients of project royalties only has not brought much benefit to resource owing communities.
They need to venture out to become joint venture partners or shareholders at least.