Marape urges better approach, choice of words in criticisms

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
PRIME Minister James Marape has urged tact and sensitivity when criticising foreign investors in Papua New Guinea.
Marape made the remarks in Parliament yesterday when responding to a series of questions from Opposition Leader Belden Namah.
Namah also questioned the processes involved in the signing of an agreement with Australian company Fortescue Future Industries and the State, on the margins of COP26 in Glasgow recently.
“Due diligence should be carried out with foreign companies that we engage with,” Namah said.
“The Government, through its officials at Glasgow, during COP26, signed a US$5 billion (about K17.19 billion) deal. The deal that was signed was not in Papua New Guinea. Why was it signed in Scotland?
“Were the landowners and Gulf government consulted in the Purari power project?”
Namah asked if due diligence had been done on the background of Fortescue Future Industries Ltd and its billionaire owner Andrew Forrest. “Why the rush on this important project just six months leading into a national election?” Namah said.
“Has any feasibility (study) been done on the Purari power project?”
Marape countered that the agreement had not been rushed.
“There is no absolute rush in signing the agreement,” he said.
“We are not time bound by elections or time in Government.
“When we took office, we were on a specific mission to ensure we do not deliver one or two, but, as many projects as possible to ensure foreign direct investment comes into the country. Just because we are pitching to the investor, that does not mean we have agreed to that investor being given a space of investment in our country.”