IPA head encourages Japanese investment

PAPUA New Guinea has seen an increasing level of interest from Japanese firms over the last five years especially in terms of foreign direct investment, a senior agency official says.
Leon Buskens, the chairman of Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), the country’s business regulator, says this investment has chiefly been in the agriculture and fishing sectors as well as the extractive industry such as gas and ore.
He said during the PNG-Japan public-private joint economic seminar and business forum in Port Moresby yesterday that on bilateral trade relations, Japan was PNG’s single largest trading partner.
“According to the data available on Bank of PNG website, PNG’s exports to Japan were valued at US$12.9 billion (about K59.2 billion) in 2022, followed by China US$10.9 billion (K41.6 billion), Singapore US$9.9 billion (K38 billion) and Australia US$6.8 billion (K25.9 billion),” Buskens said.
“PNG exports mainly petroleum gas, copper ore and refined petroleum. PNG has the potential to export coffee, value added timber, cocoa, fish and vanilla among others. PNG’s imports from Japan mainly machinery and transport equipment. In 2021 in the midst of Covid-19, PNG’s imports from Japan were valued at US$183 million (K698.6 million) with exports down.
“PNG has more to offer in terms of investment in agriculture, fisheries, tourism, manufacturing, services, real estate, construction among others. We have credible Papua New Guinean businesses capable of entering into partnerships with Japanese investors.”
Buskens noted that from the composition of the Japanese business delegation and they were focused on tourism and hospitality, commodities trading, renewable energy, forestry, coffee, technology (drones/artificial intelligence) and vanilla.
“I believe there are other areas of interest by Japanese investors who are not here today and, which we look forward to engaging with them in similar forums in the future.”
Buskens said PNG remained a resilient and an attractive investment destination for investors within the Asia Pacific region and as far as Europe and America.
“We are always appreciative of investors from Japan who continue to do business in PNG.
“As we evolve in this journey, a win-win partnership, let’s also open up the opportunities for further value adding through downstream processing,” he said.