Govt formalises application for economic reform

THE Government has formalised an application for international support of Papua New Guinea’s economic reform programme with the Bank of PNG, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey says.
Ling-Stuckey said the signatories included Prime Minister James Marape, Governor of BPNG Loi Bakani and himself.
“We have signed a request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a Staff Monitored Programme (SMP),” he said.
“This was foreshadowed as part of the 2020 Budget. It reflects the partnership we have built with the IMF and other international partners through the due diligence work, the 2019 Supplementary Budget, the 2020 Budget and the increased levels of good, cheap financing we have already started to receive.
“This application is a historic opportunity to assist the Marape Government’s strategy to ‘take back PNG’,” he said.
Ling-Stuckey said it had been close to 20 years since the country had embarked on such an ambitious economic reform programme supported by the IMF.
“This is a very different programme from then, as the programme now is built upon PNG’s own economic reform programme,” he said.
“The IMF has also learnt from its mistakes of 20 years ago – in our work with them over recent months they have shown themselves to be a fairer and much friendlier partner.”
Ling-Stuckey said one key reason for working with the IMF was the economic credibility it added to PNG’s own efforts.
“This is a way for assuring our people and our businesses that the government is no longer simply issuing fake budgets and fake growth figures. We have opened our books to external scrutiny.
“The Marape-Steven Government does not run away from independent scrutiny – we are a more honest and transparent government.”