Govt opens consulate office in Hokkaido

 IN a bid to further open up trade and investment opportunities in Japan, the Government has opened an honorary consulate in the Hokkaido region.

PNG Ambassador to Japan Gabriel Dusava announced Kazunori Kuribayashi, a longtime business partner in PNG, as the honorary consul last week.

Dusava said Japan remained buyer of the single largest volume of PNG liquefied natural gas through its foundation customers, Tepco and Osaka Gas, and more interest was coming in.

He said potential investment opportunities were also high in tourism and the maritime industry. 

“It was therefore, with a view to reaching out to the whole of Japan and its people, and to seek out and secure the best in trade and investment, and other opportunities for PNG that our government decided to apply an age-old system of representation, through honorary consulates,” Dusava said during the commissioning of Kuribayashi.

“We would have our Japanese friends become honorary Papua new Guineans to assist, represent and avail facilities and information, where Papua New Guinea’s limited resources, including manpower, cannot reach out.”

He said the Government was satisfied that Kuribayashi, who currently has businesses in PNG in pearl farming and shipping between the two countries, had a good knowledge of PNG.

Since taking office in 2012, the O’Neill Government sought ways to transform the wealth accrued from export of the country’s valuable natural resources into sustainable and responsible economic development.