‘Less import-dependent’ sector expected to grow

STRONG performances are expected by businesses that are less import-dependent next year, Business Council of PNG executive director Douveri Henao says.
He said the agriculture sector would be better positioned for growth despite the ongoing economic challenges brought by imports and foreign exchange availability.
“From a macroeconomic view, and considering the budget, there are two ways this conversation can go where purely from the import of view which is well documented on the past couple of years of the foreign exchange and the impacts on business remodeling,” Henao said.
“Or you could look at it from local content or business point of view which is a different story entirely where those operators servicing PNG inside the country using the majority of their inputs from PNG, they are the ones performing quite well and are set to continue next year.
“The performance of these operators are demonstrating very interesting trends. An obvious example is agriculture where the input and processing throughout and the output is here.
“The agricultural sector is a classic example of being resilient in the current business environment due to it being less dependent on imports.”
Douveri said the resilience of business similar to agriculture in terms of import dependency was evidenced in the investment undertaken in the sector this year.
“We had a US$50 million (K155mil) investment on a dairy farm and there is a further several million kina investment and that just demonstrates the resilience of agriculture,” he said.