PM hails economic feat

 By SHIRLEY MAULUDU

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says fiscal and economic management has contributed immensely to the country’s political stability. 

O’Neill was speaking during the opening of the two-day Papua New Guinea International Investment Summit 2013 at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby yesterday.

He said legislative changes that the government had been initiating would pave the way for good governance in terms of sound fiscal management, pro-investment and pro-development policies, the delivery of basic community services and providing the infrastructure people needed.

“The development of PNG’s vast natural gas resource could not be better timed even though the construction phase was coming to an end. 

“However, PNG would continue to benefit through strong revenue inflows to the government, and export income, when construction ends and export begins,” O’Neill said.

The prime minister said this would result in a high gross domestic product (GDP), especially in 2015.

“The challenge now is to work with gas sector investors and developers to bring new projects to the development stage as soon as possible.

“While PNG is benefiting from the massive construction phase of LNG project, other sectors are being hit hard by low world commodity prices,” he said.

“The world prices for some of our major agricultural product remain depressed, especially cocoa and copra. 

“And even industries where prices are better, such as for coffee, infrastructure and other issues remain a serious challenge.”

He said in recent months, gold prices and prices for minerals had generally declined, although there were were some modest increases recently. 

“This is already having an impact on our existing mining operations and on projects at various stages of development.

“We need to work with our mining companies to ensure our existing mines continue operating. And we need to help where we can with new projects, which may now be delayed because of low commodity prices,” O’Neill said.