Three ships secured as floating hotels for Apec

By HELEN TARAWA
Three cruise ships will arrive in November to provide accommodation for over 7000 leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders summit.
Two of these floating hotels will be at Fairfax Harbour and one will be at the new Motukea port.
Apec Minister Justin Tkatchenko told a media conference yesterday that delegates living on board the vessels would make their own bookings and payments online which would also save costs for Papua New Guinea.
Tkatchkenko said Papua New Guinea may not have the accommodation capacity to cater for all the world leaders and it was necessary that these cruise ships were engaged only for the duration of the summit.
“We are very happy to announce that three cruise ships have been secured and which will take up our accommodation requirements for the Apec Leaders’ Summit and the Apec Business Advisory Council meeting. They will all be supplied with water, sewerage and all the necessities and utilities that will be required.”
Eda Ranu is working with the Apec Authority to ensure there is enough water available and all the requirements are met.
“The cruise ships will brighten up the whole harbour and they will ensure that all the visiting guests and delegates have a comfortable safe place to stay during the leaders’ summit and meetings,” Tkatchenko said.
“All the delegates will book online and pay for the accommodation so this is not a cost on the Papua New Guinea Government.
“We are providing a service here for all the delegates to have that opportunity.
“This has been done before in Brunei and other countries when hosting Apec because of shortage of accommodation.
“We are using commonsense here by bringing in the cruise ships and it’s a win-win situation for everybody.”