There should not be any forex issues, says Abel

National

TREASURER Charles Abel says the country should not be facing a shortage of foreign exchange given the volume of exports such as from forestry and fishery annually.
Abel, also the deputy prime minister, said during a ground-breaking ceremony for a market project in Alotau on Friday “when we have resources like tuna and forestry, when we are pumping out gas and oil and gold and everything from the ground, chopping our forests and exporting tuna, I don’t see why we should have issues with revenue in our budget”.
“I don’t see why we should have issues with forex that people are talking about,” he said.
“After all, we are selling all those things in Australian and US dollars.
“We just (have to) get our tax system right, get the project agreements right and we should have plenty of foreign exchange and revenue so I don’t have to cut DSIP and PSIP. I don’t have to take Ward SIP.
“We are struggling to pay our councillors wages.
“We need to take some corrective measures to make sure when we are pumping gas out of the ground, we are using it to empower our own people.
“We should be growing our own rice and feeding ourselves with our own tuna.
“Why do we import everything?
“When do we export all our natural resources?”