Financial market unstable, MP says

 GLOBAL commodity and financial markets are very volatile at the moment, and no one knows how long the situation will last, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Tommy Tomscoll says.

Tomscoll, pictured, told a summit on agriculture in Port Moresby yesterday that the agriculture was important in driving the economy.

“It appears distressing that traditional economics cannot actually explain what is happening in the market and to predict the future market level accurately,” he said. 

He said the country was at a cross-road – whether to move away from depending solely on oil and gas for economic growth.

“The problem with the LNG (liquefied natural gas) is that it is not a saleable and dependent commodity, even if you have it overflowing, until you sign up a long-term overseas contract buyer,” he said. 

“Then only can you commercialise the fields for a project to happen. It is difficult to break into LNG markets because they are usually locked down by suppliers with long-term agreements.

“But when the opportunity presents itself, you must grab it because the window opens for an extremely short time.

“Unfortunately for Papua New Guinea, no one forecast the current low price when the Government decided to participate as a shareholder in the PNG LNG Project and how long it will stay at a low level. 

“But then, no one could have anywhere.” He said the nation must go back to its traditional renewable sector.

“In the long term, it is key to diversify export dependency so that the economy is pinned by a strong mixture of diversified export and strong direct foreign investment.”   

Agriculture in PNG has a more than 7000 years old history with about 85 per cent of the country’s population lives from semi-subsistence agriculture. 

Major agricultural products in the country are, Sweet potato, Coffee and Copra.