O’Neill confident PNG can host 2018 summit

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday October 10th, 2013

 By MALUM NALU

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill is confident that Papua New Guinea will stand up to the mammouth task of getting in shape to host the next Asia-Pacific Economic 

Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2018.

He said this yesterday when asked at a press conference if PNG would get its house in order by way of general cleanliness, addressing the law and order problem, infrastructure and accommodation for the leaders meeting in 2018.

“There will be a lot of expectations of Papua New Guinea,” O’Neill said.

“But I want to say this very clearly: Don’t undermine ourselves and don’t undermine our country. 

“Our country is very capable of hosting this event.

“I want to give you an example of how it is done in other countries. 

“When they held the APEC meeting in Brunei, Brunei did not have enough hotels to accommodate over 7,000 people who were there. 

“So they brought in a big vessel which accommodated over 3,000 people.

“The same thing was done in Russia, in Vladivostok. It is possible.

“We are now enjoying investments in the hotel industry within Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea.

“The Minister for Trade, Industry and Commerce (Richard Maru) is out there consulting on the incentives that we offering.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself. 

“We will do it.”