PMIZ set up to capitalise on tuna industry

THE Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) project is 100% owned by the government.
It is developed by the De­partment of Commerce and In­dustry to maximise the benefits of the tuna industry by having a large onshore processing facility to make PNG the capital of world tuna.
Once the government develops it, allotments will be leased out.
Some 30,000 people are expected to be employed by the processing plants.
The environment permit for the development has been granted.
Once that is developed, individual locators will apply for separate environment permits.
Among the requirements on the discharge of waste is using the latest state of the art technology on waste and affluent management.
So there is really nothing to be alarmed about.
The world tuna industry is valued at US$ 6 billion annually.
Tuna is a protein consumed by the rich in North America, Europe and parts of Asia.
Tuna is a migratory fish and PNG provides a good breeding and fishing ground where 10% of the four million metric tonnes harvested annually comes from our waters.
This equates to about US$600 million or K2 billion annually.
However, PNG earns only US$40 million (K100 million) annually through licence fees.

 
Wilfred Desmond
Madang