Firms assured of their services

 THE PNG Ports Corporation Ltd has assured landowner companies operating stevedoring services at the Lae wharf that their operations will continue.

Chief executive officer Stanley Alphonse made the assurance following a paid advertisement by the company in the media which the landowners saw as a threat to their companies.

Alphonse met representatives of Riback Stevedores, Lae Port Services and United Stevedoring yesterday.

“No existing landowner interests would be inconvenienced,” Alphonse told the landowners.

“Lae is a critical national infrastructure and we do not want to jeopardise its operations.”

He said that PNGPCL was there to help them as it was their land and no one would move them or take away their businesses.  

Alphonse said what PNGPCL had embarked on was in accordance with the law.

They told him and his delegation to go back to Port Moresby and tell the minister and government to change the law regarding stevedoring business in Lae so that it benefited them.

“Our demands still stand. If we do not receive any favourable response by 4.06pm on April 18, we will shut down the wharf,” spokesman Dominic Mark said.

“You have to come clear to us.”

George Gware the operations manager of Riback Stevedores told Alphonse that PNGPCL had created the problem because it did not consult the three landowner companies on important matters about stevedoring services at the wharf.