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Business, Normal
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The National, Thursday November 12th, 2015

 OXFORD Business Group editorial manager Marco Venditti says the low commodity price environment is an opportunity for Papua New Guinea to diversify its investment.

Venditti said Papua New Guinea was dependent on the extractive industry and should create other opportunities for investment to help the country’s growth.

He said during the launching of a report on Papua New Guinea that the country made history this year with the full production of the liquefied natural gas.

 But the drop of commodity prices affected the economy.

“We think this is a great opportunity for this country because at the end of the day, everyone knows PNG cannot keep on counting on the extractive industries,” he said.

“It needs to create opportunities for domestic as well as international investments.”

President of the PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry John Leahy said more investment in tourism was needed.

“We’ve seen changes in the nature of China’s growth. And of course the total growth rate has dropped a little.

“They are pulling in a lot less resources from resource-rich countries like Papua New Guinea and we have been very much affected by that.

“They are going to be looking for a lot more in terms of agriculture imports.”

He said they might help with technical facility in supporting the agro industry, possibly aquaculture.