Official: Holding fair talks vital

By CLARISSA MOI
IT is important for the Government to offer fair and reasonable consultation between different stakeholders, including landowners in the mining, oil and gas sectors, an official says.
Former MP Arthur Somare said this during the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mines and Petroleum webinar series on the reforms and revenue in the resource sector in Port Moresby yesterday.
Somare said the Government needed to offer fair and reasonable compensation to the landowners for the use of their traditional or customary land.
He said there were multiple stakeholders in any (resource) licence which included the State, State entities and corporate bodies, but the landowners were important as they would continue to be landowners even after the licence expired.
“The landowners will continue to own the land at the date of the expiration of any licence,” Somare said.