Taylor: Reopen Cairns consulate

 PAPUA New Guinea has been urged to re-open the Cairns consulate without delay to facilitate the flow of business with Australia’s northern municipalities.

Peter Taylor, president of the Australia PNG Business Council, said: “Papua New Guinea is enjoying an almost unprecedented boom in business activity and one of the side effects is the arrival congestion at Jackson’s International Airport.

“This congestion could be reduced if more people arrived on flights from Cairns, instead of mostly originating from Sydney and Brisbane, where their visas for travel to PNG have been issued.

“The Business Council encourages the PNG government to move quickly to re-open the Consulate in Cairns to facilitate to issue of visas for the growing number of visitors seeking to enter PNG through Australia’s northern gateway, including the increasing number of business people from northern Queensland now doing business in Papua New Guinea.

“This should be of benefit to the business communities of both nations,” Taylor said.