Fisheries lures S’pore firm

 By SHIRLEY MAULUDU

A SINGAPOREAN company has showed interest in importing fish from Papua New Guinea.

Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru, after his arrival from Singapore yesterday, said the company was seeking to import a million cans fish from PNG per month.

“I met a trading company from Singapore, who wants to order one million cans fish every month,” he said. 

Without mentioning the company name, Maru said he had invited the company to visit the country and explore investment opportunities.

He added: “I’ve now invited this company to deal with my office and they will come in three weeks time. I will direct my trade department to travel with them and meet with all the fishing companies who are producing canned fish in our county.”

In terms of expanding the country’s trade and investment opportunities, Maru said such was an opportunity.

“This is a huge opportunity for us. Currently we are targeting the European Union market; we have not really been targeting the rest of Asia. This now opens up a wonderful opportunity. This will  support our plans to invest in the Madang marine park (Pacific Marine Industrial Park).” 

He said he was surprised at the level of interest that investment and trading companies have for the country.

“There are companies in Singapore who are willing to invest here but they don’t know much about our investment opportunities, our investment climate here.

“There are Singaporean trading companies who are ready to buy our fish, our timber, our marine products, even our other products such as cocoa, coffee, but they do not know about what we produce and what we can offer,” he said.