Senior Papua New Guinea Government Ministers to visit Sydney on August 19

A DELEGATION of senior Papua New Guinean ministers, including the country’s Treasurer, Foreign Minister and Minister for Commerce and Industry, will visit Sydney next Monday to attend the 2019 Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference.

The powerful delegation will attend the event, at Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel, to meet with the investment community and outline the new business and investment policies of the country’s new government, led by Prime Minister James Marape, which was installed in late May.

Ministers expected to attend include Commerce Minister Wera Mori (who will formally represent Prime Minister Marape), Minister for Treasury Sam Basil, Foreign Minister Minister Soroi Eoe and Minister of Works Michael Nali.

The ministers will lead a large contingent of over 120 Papua New Guinean business leaders and government officials, to meet with business people and investors from Australia, the United States, New Zealand and the Pacific.

The conference program, which starts Monday morning, will cover all sectors of PNG’s economy, from mining and petroleum, to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, finance, services, energy and technology. It will include investment case studies and feature participation from event partners such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, KPMG and the International Finance Corporation.

Papua New Guinea, Australia’s nearest neighbour, became an exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2014 and is on the cusp of green-lighting two major new resources projects, the US10 billion Papua LNG project (in which ASX-listed Oil Search Limited is a partner) and the US$9 billion Wafi-Golpu copper-gold project, led by ASX-listed Newcrest Mining.

In addition, the country is undergoing a massive investment in infrastructure, with a US$2 billion rural electrification project and undersea cable internet being part-funded by Australia. In addition, the conference will hear about opportunities in new road, port and aviation infrastructure. 

The World Bank predicts PNG’s GDP will grow by 5.6 percent this year - twice the rate of Australia’s GDP growth. It is projected to double its population by 2050 to approximately 20 million.

"This is the only Papua New Guinea-focused business event in Australia this year and it represents a unique opportunity to get acquainted with PNG’s new government,’ said Andrew Wilkins of event organiser Business Advantage International.

"We are expecting to welcome plenty of Australian businesses to the event."

The Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference will take place on 19 and 20 August at the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney.

pnginvestmentconference.com