Yates: Enhanced trading climate to spur growth

THE enhancement of bilateral trade relationships and provision of more access to trading opportunities in PNG can build on the pillars which have driven growth in the past years.
It is vital that business, Government and the community continue to work together to achieve outcomes that deliver real benefits to the people of PNG, Syd Yates, chief executive officer of Kina Securities, said in the company’s communiqué published yesterday.
He said the financial approval for the PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project had caused great deal of international interest as PNG stands up among world suppliers of LNG.
Mr Yates said the international recognition was one key message delivered last week by Queensland treasurer and minister for employment and economic development Andrew Fraser after the completion of his successful trade mission to PNG.
Fraser toured PNG with a team of 15 Queensland delegates, and returned with a glowing assessment of the current state of our Nation’s economy and the future prospects of its ongoing trade and business relationship with Australia moving forward.
Upon his return, Fraser told an infrastructure summit in Brisbane, Australia, that PNG was on the verge of “game-changing, nation-changing development”, which would see the domestic economy achieve substantial growth of approximately 8% this year.
“The PNG economy is poised to take off the frontier of development there is in many ways a similar dynamic to the fundamental optimism and practicality that lies at the core of the Queensland economy’s recent development,” Fraser had said.
“Already, Queensland and PNG has two-way merchandise trade worth A$3 billion (K8 billion) … I want to see that grow over the next decade and with Cairns’ obvious geographic advantage, I see a lot of business coming to the Far North,” he said.
Mr Yates said, while PNG continues to attract strong interest form a number of nations throughout the Pacific and internationally, “the country’s historic links with Australia across many aspects of our daily life, remains a unique feature of our international relations”.