Manufacturing may lose capacity: Official

By DALE LUMA
THERE will be a loss in manufacturing capacity because of the high cost structure of the economy and the impact of Covid-19, says the PNG Manufacturers Council.
Council chief executive Chey Scovell said Port Moresby and Lae would suffer the most because of job losses.
He said some areas of the business was doing well “but not good overall”.
Scovell said the irony of the situation was that the Covid-19 crisis had shown that PNG must be more resilient and able to produce its own.
“In some areas such as dry foods and small goods, we are doing okay,” Scovell said.
“But overall, we are not succeeding at import substitution or sufficient food security because the cost structure of our economy is way too high.
“That combined with the effects of Covid-19 means there will be a loss of manufacturing capacity.”

He said with the inability to finalise agreements on major resources, it would take long for the capacity to be restored.
“This will have a huge impact on unemployment in urban centres like Port Moresby and Lae,” Scovell said.
Other issues affecting some manufacturing companies today included the quarantine measures and the shortage of foreign exchange.
Coca-Cola Amatil general manager Phillippe Mondada said recently “each time we import something from somewhere, each time the vessel comes here, the boat has to wait for 14 days before it unloads.”

State keen to discuss reopening Porgera mine with operator

THE Government will be talking to Barrick Niugini Limited to reopen the Porgera mine in Enga as soon as possible, says State Enterprises Minister Sasindran Muthuvel.
He also told a business meeting in Port Moresby yesterday that a special mining lease would be issued soon for the Wafi-Golpu project in Morobe.
He said Prime Minister James Marape had told him on Tuesday to pass on the information on Porgera and Wafi-Golpu to those attending yesterday’s meeting.
“He said to give you this information that he is very keen do the negotiation and ensure that the mine (Porgera) opens as early as possible,” he said.
“It was not the Government’s intention to shut it down. He (Marape) knows the suffering of the contractors, truckies (trucking firms) and businesses. So the Government is going into this negotiation phase and to open the mine as early as possible.”
The mine was forced to close last month after the Government refused to renew the special mining licence held by Barrick.
Muthuvel also said a special mining licence for Wafi Golpu should be finalised before the end of the year.
He said gas negotiation was also going on with Oil Search helping in terms of supporting the Government in the negotiation process.
“2020 is challenging year but it’s also a year where we (Government) can announce some significant projects for the country,” Muthuvel said.

Four deaths in Morobe not related to Covid-19: Doctor

By JIMMY KALEBE
A DOCTOR has clarified that the recent deaths of four people in the Tewai-Siassi district of Morobe were caused by influenza and not the coronavirus.
Angau Hospital director medical services Dr Lincoln Menda, Morobe’s Covid-19 response team chairman, said a team was in the area to assess the situation.
He said tests were carried out to assess the extent of the outbreak. Morobe health adviser Micah Yawing said the influenza outbreak at Sialum was serious and deadly.
Yawing said a health team from the province and district was conducting tests and awareness.
He said people in neighbouring districts were taking safety precautions.
Yawing said a Covid-19 awareness in the district was carried out early in January by health teams from Lae.

Stranded citizens missed out on flight

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
A PNG diplomat based in Indonesia says the 24 PNG citizens stranded in that country could have returned home on an Air Niugini flight which had transported over a cargo of vanilla.
Jayapura-based Consul-General Geoffrey Wiri said he should have been informed about the flight by the National Covid-19 Operation Center.
He only knew about the flight when a picture of it unloading 22,588kg of vanilla beans at the Yogyakarta international airport in Java province was posted on Facebook.
“I am surprised because the Joint Agency Task Force National Operations Center and relevant departments in Port Moresby know that we have PNG citizens stranded in Indonesia,” he said.

“They could have (returned home) on the return flight which was empty.”
He said the Health Department could have also used the opportunity to buy face masks, gloves and sanitisers from Indonesia at a cheap price.
“I am disappointed because we have been trying to repatriate our citizens. It was a missed opportunity.”
The 24 stranded citizens include 17 students and seven prisoners. Simon Namis, the first secretary at the PNG Embassy in Jakarta, said whoever charted that flight could have been asked to allow the 24 to come back on it.
State of Emergency Controller David Manning said the Foreign Affairs Department should have advised them about the chartered flight.
“Foreign Affairs is handling all repatriation of PNG citizens stranded overseas. If there are any issues of coordination then I would be more than happy to expedite the process.”

More tests to be done around country, says Manning

STATE of Emergency Controller David Manning says more Covid-19 testing will be conducted this week, starting with the provinces where the eight cases were first reported.
Manning said the testing followed a research conducted by the head of the Department of Health Laboratory and Testing Unit, Dr Evelyn Lavu and the Institute of Medical Research.
It will begin in Port Moresby, Lae, Kokopo, Goroka and at the border provinces.
Lavu said the country had two diagnostic tests – the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT).
The PCR looks at the coronavirus nuclear material and tells if a person has Covid-19. This was the testing done to identity the eight positive cases.
“A lot more testing is planned for PNG – about 3,000. So with this figure, we’ll have more understanding of the virus in PNG.”
Lavu explained that tests in PNG were slow because “we do not have enough test kits”.
She said there was a shortage of test kits around the world and PNG was not a priority country because only eight cases had been identified so far.
She said the testing strategy would change because of the availability of the 13,150 GeneXpert from the World Health Organisation.