Meet focuses on strengthening ties

THE EU-PNG Business and Investment Conference aims to strengthen business and investment ties between the European Union (EU) and the country by providing information on trade and investment opportunities.
According to Carlos Perez Padilla, policy coordinator economics, PFM and trade of the EU delegation to PNG, the conference, to be held next Thursday during the investment week, would bring together potential business partners from around the country and European Union states.
The conference would offer an opportunity to talk about the challenges affecting the business and investment climate and to discuss ideas and strategies to overcome those challenges.
Padilla said the conference was targeting both PNG and EU markets and a team of experts would offer market analysis in key sectors like agriculture, services, infrastructure and energy.
“The event builds in success stories like the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and Papua New Guinea and recent investment ventures like the Papua LNG project led by the French company, Total S.A,” he said.
“The EU-PNG Business and Investment Conference would have a practical approach, aiming to attract new EU companies to PNG and to offer new opportunities to local companies.”
Padilla said the conference was aligned with the Papua New Guinea trade and development priorities such as increasing trade volume, easing the investment climate and promoting national and global competitiveness, formulated under the National Trade Policy, PNG Vision 2050 and the Medium Term Development Plan 2018-2022, among others. “One of the targets will be to reinforce the diversification strategy towards non-mineral sectors like agriculture, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing and services.
“This is one of the main priorities included in the policies and offers opportunities for European Union companies to expand their interest in these sectors, either through import-export activities or through direct investment in the country.”