NFA re-scoping Pacific Marine Industrial Zone fisheries project

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE National Fisheries Authority (NFA) is re-scoping the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) fisheries project in Madang, says managing director John Kasu.

The project was given back to NFA recently to manage.
“The PMIZ was actually one project started here (at NFA),” he said.
“We initiated the work, and then taken across a number of departments, Department of Commerce and Industry and back to Kumul (Consolidated) Holdings (KCH) – going back and forth. And this year, the Government decided to bring it back to NFA.
“We are in the process of gathering information on what has happened and transpired, and documentations.”
He said everything must be brought back to the NFA.
“We are re-scoping the whole project again,” he said.
“We are in the process of looking at budget planning, schedule planning and costing as well. There have been some preliminary costing that we have done but that needs to be confirmed.”
The PMIZ project began at the NFA and Fishing Industry Association in 2006. It was launched in Nov 2015 – a joint venture between KCH and the Madang government.
The project is to host 10 tuna processing plants and generate 30,000 jobs once fully developed.
Located 23km by road north of Madang, it was to cater for processing canneries, which would underpin the Government’s policy direction of moving away from only licensing fishing to more onshore processing.
The size of the project is 100 hectares for the industrial zone.