Firm seeking Forex

 DIGICEL PNG says it is in discussions with Government and concerned authorities on ways to purchase foreign currencies, given the current shortage of foreign currency in the market.

Director government relations Gary Seddon said that in response to whether Digicel may encounter issues as a result.  

“Digicel is in dialogue with the commercial banks, the Central Bank and the PNG Government on various options to purchase foreign currency to meet our overseas supplier obligations. Our highest priority remains the consistent and uninterrupted delivery of first class services to the people of Papua New Guinea,” Seddon told The National.

In a recent media conference, Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) governor Loi Bakani revealed a lack of supply of foreign exchange coming in.

He said the level of reserves is at US$2 billion (K5.6 billion).

“We see this (shortage of foreign currency supply) as a short term … we’re looking at how we will resolve this, clear the backlog of orders in the foreign exchange market or in the interbank market,” Bakani said.

He said BPNG had been in discussions with some of the companies that have backlogs of overdue payments to their overseas service providers.

“We’ve (BPNG) met with a lot of big importers to discuss ways we can address their import demand requirements. Especially the bigger players like Trukai, Puma, Digicel,” Bakani said.

Puma Energy said this week the company had been forced to limit purchases of petrol to the Port Moresby market. 

“Due to the lack of liquidity in the forex markets, Puma Energy has only been able to convert very limited amounts of local currency into US dollars to pay for its supplies,” PNG country manager Jim Collings said. 

“Puma Energy has been working to resolve with the PNG Government and its supporting agencies, such as the Central Bank and Customs.”