The Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) Association will start its 2023 season with the pre-season games this weekend at the Colts Oval, starting on Saturday 01st April. Association President Mr. Douglas Lai confirmed that the pre-season matches will see all 11 teams participate; however, it will only be the senior men’s division teams participating, not everyone. He also explained that the cancelation of the opening of the pre- season matches, which was supposed to be held last weekend, was due to one of their colleagues having a death in the family. They had to postpone as respect to their colleague. The president said this pre-season will be exciting because it will be the first time the new club in the competition, PNG Power, will be participating. “The new club entering the competition this year will be fielding a full set; the senior men’s team, the men’s reserve team and the women’s team,” said the president. However, for the pre-season matches, PNG Power will only field its senior men’s team. Meanwhile, right after this weekend’s matches the president said the Easter Cup Challenge will take place. He said the Easter Cup will see the players play in regional teams, instead of their club teams. Mr. Lai further said that Moni Plus is the sponsor for the Easter Cup challenge as well, having already signed on for the 2023 Port Moresby AFL season.  

The country’s resource and non- resource sectors continue to present good opportunities for investments especially when major resource projects are coming up in the very near future, which should also see the economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) growing stronger going forward. That was the assurance given by the Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru, to delegates and investors during the official opening of dialogues for the Pacific Islands Investment Forum (PIIF) at Port Moresby this morning. Minister Maru said the country has eight projects so far that are active in the mining and petroleum sectors with more in in the process of coming into existence in the near future. This he said presents an excellent opportunity for investment in the resource sector. “These resource projects underline or underpin the economy, so Papua New Guinea will continue to be a strong economy going forward,” said Minister Maru. “We have a number of big project that are coming online this year, Papua LNG just announced FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) phase, Wafi Golpu we expect the project agreement to be signed. It will become one of the biggest gold mines in the world. He added that P’nyang will start after the construction phase of the Papua LNG, which may be a five year construction phase for Papua LNG and five year phase for P’nyang. This will mean ten years of construction phase. “The resource projects will underpin our economy and when they all start coming online this year, I see a construction boom in the next for the fifteen years running and when we have construction boom in the experience of the PNG LNG project, our economy will grow every year.” However, the minister said although the resource sector is good for cash flow, it’s not good for employment creation; therefore, the non- resource sector is the sleeping giant when it comes to employment and growing the economy. Maru said it’s the government’s focus to revive the agriculture sector so to create employment and moving into downstream processing, where the country manufacture finished products for domestic consumption and also export. This will done through the government’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) programs. This also presents more opportunities for investors to tap into it, not only in the SEZ’s but for the energy sector in electricity generation and transmission, banking and financing, logging and fuel production. Maru also pointed out that the government is keen on this and has put in a lot of funding into developing them and get more return on the country’s resources. The minister made the presentation to gain interest from Superannuation fund heads from the pacific who are here for the PIIF dialogue, to consider investing in PNG. This is important because superannuation funds make investments in projects in order to make good dividend each year, which is later paid as interest to their contributing members accounts, on top of their savings.  

The residents of Edai town, just outside the city of Port Moresby located a couple meters from the PNG LNG plant site, are already fed up with the poor road condition along the main Napanapa highway in the Central province that was left to deteriorate over time. The residents along with business house in the area, through their own committee, are now appealing to the National Government to quickly address the deteriorating condition of the poorly maintained highway. The residents are not happy because it has been close to two years now since the announcement of the start of the road rehabilitation; however, since then not much has been implemented. The residents through their roads committee had handed a petition to the Member for Hiri Koiari, Keith Iduhu in Port Moresby last Thursday, seeking his support to take their concerns further up with the government. The Committee Chair-person, Ms. Alice Kuaningi when handing over the petition emphasized on the importance of the Napanapa highway, the current state of the road and the consequences faced by commuters as a result of the deteriorating road condition. Ms. Kuaningi said, “Napanapa highway is an important government infrastructure that serves not only villagers and communities in the area, but also businesses including the multi-billion kina PNG LNG Project, the upcoming Papua LNG and other privately run commercial activities along the highway. Since the relocation of PNG Ports Corporation owned wharves from down Port Moresby to Motukea, the transportation of all import and export are done using the Napanapa highway.” “The increased trucking activities and the usual wear and tear have taken a toll on the road surface as the initial road was not built to handle such heavy loads. The daily stress on the road surface, coupled with lack of maintenance, has resulted in the creation of huge potholes at various parts of the road, posing danger to the general travelling public as there have been vehicle vehicles armed robberies along the road. A Committee member, Wesley Spinder added that potholes slow down traffic in general, putting the commuters’ lives at risk as there were instances of carjacking and hold ups. He highlighted that the current road condition has also resulted in unreasonable wear and tear costs on vehicle and vehicle parts. “There have been several holds ups in the Baruni roundabout and Koukou areas, and our Edai Town families are among those who have been victimized.” “The poor road condition also means there is an increased maintenance costs, and spare parts replacement, all at a time when the costs of goods and services are already at an elevated level.” Mr. Spinder said Dust clouds is another issue that commuters have had to deal with on a daily basis. There is reduced visibility for oncoming traffic due to the size of trucks and the dust clouds created when they travel through potholed areas. The increased dust swells have prompted residents along Koukou to build humps and even place boulders on the road to slow down speeding vehicles. The committee in its petition has suggested for a four-lane road to be built to help ease the movement of people and activities on the highway. “As more people and businesses move into Hiri West area of Hiri Koiari District, we believe a “four lane road” would significantly reduce the dangers associated with commercial trucking. We believe it would also increase the efficiency of services to our area. “Ms. Kuaningi concluded The local MP in receiving the petition, acknowledged issues raised by Edai residents and the business houses and has assured to take them up with the Minister for Works. The Member for Hiri Koiari is also keen to get more information on the current road maintenance arrangement and the work progress.  

The Mining Minister Sir Ano Pala has reassured that the environmental matters pertaining to the re-opening of the Tolukuma Gold Mine in Goilala district in the Central province, will be closely looked at to ensure no damages to the environment will be caused. The minister, when responding the concerns of potential environmental damages raised by the Member for Kairuku Peter Iso Aimo during parliament session, said monitoring what’s going to happen is now the only thing to do. He explained that the mining license along with the environmental permit was issued already to the developer of the mining project Lole Mining Ltd, which is a locally owned mining company, to operate the mine. Minister Pala further explained that the company itself was liquidated some years back, but just last year it came out of it and has since then progressed towards re-opening the Tolukuma Mine, and during its liquidation period, the mining license that was given to the company continued to remained active. Therefore, the minister said there was no re- issuing of the mining license. “I want to assure you that I’m very concerned about it too. I’m concerned because it is going to happen now that the mine is likely to re- open.” “So, we will look at everywhere possible to minimize the impact of waste dumping in the river,” said the minister. Minister Pala said in general that despite mining companies being issued mining licenses and environmental permits that bounds them to be responsible with their activities, there still must be close monitoring of the waste and how it is being disposed of. “I want to assure you that we will continue to look at better ways, we must look at the better way.” The Member for Kairuku’s concern was a valid one being that when the mine was still operating before its closure some year’s back, the communities living along the Angabanga River complained about sediment build up, flooding and suspected poisoning of the environment due to the mining project upriver in the district of Goilala. The member said this continues even today. Member Iso Aimo urged the minister to closely look at this matter of environmental impact now that the mine is to re-open because the lives of a lot of people living along the river will continue to be impacted by it. He also urged the minister to look at adopting more safer ways to dispose wastes from the mine.  

 Prime Minister (PM) James Marape has made it clear that the recently and hotly talked about topic of the proposed Gold Refinery Bill, is a work in process and is not in the process for being approved by the government anytime soon. Marape, when responding to questions from the Member for Menyamya Mr. Solen Loifa on this particular bill in parliament today, said the government is re- looking at it wholistically and is not in the business of pushing through a proposed bill that would in the future not benefit the people and the major players in the country’s mining industry. The proposed bill itself is not a new one as it has been in the government policy circle since 2012 and 2013 and the proposal came to the government desk sometime in 2019 and 2020. "This proposal is a good one, but we will have to advance it to a stage where it will not affect our alluvial miners, not affecting individuals engaged in the buying and selling of gold and the big mining companies that have contracts,” said the PM. “Those who have contracts, their contracts will be respected those already in the industry, whether in buying or producing.” Marape said the government is focused on downstream processing of the country’s resources, including the downstream processing of gold where the country produces the finished gold products and sell overseas. But this will be looked at closely before anything happens with the proposed bill to enable that. “No final version of the refinery bill has been approved by cabinet as yet, it is still work in progress. We want to do something that is solid that is beneficial to our country and beneficial to all in the industry, whether at the large-scale level or at the small alluvial level.” PM Marape said the end result is simple and that is for Papua New Guinea to have its own gold refinery or a gold mint sometime in the future, but to have that a lot more will be done before that goal is achieve.

The Acting Speaker of Parliament Mr. Koni Iguan bluntly told Members of Parliament (MP) this morning in parliament to turn up on time for the parliament sessions after noticing that many of them continuously coming in late for sessions. The Acting Speaker said parliament sessions are important because a lot of topics on development and matters of importance to the country are discussed and debated on the floor of parliament. “In accordance with section 36 two- and- three, it states very clear that we go strictly by the time of attending parliament sessions,” said the acting speaker. Acting Speaker Iguan warned that by tomorrow when MPs don't turn up on time to form quorum for session to take place before the bell stops ringing, parliament will have to be adjourned to the next day, meaning no sitting for the day. “I am putting this in notice that the first bell will ring and it will be suspended when there is no quorum to a certain time, and if there is no quorum on the time the speaker announce on the suspension, the parliament will be adjourned to the next sitting day of parliament.” “Therefore, I would like urge all you members of parliament that we respect the standing orders of parliament and attend parliament on time, so that we run the business of our people in this honorable house.”  

The Minister for Housing is adamant to clean up the issues that have tainted the National Housing Cooperation (NHC) over the years in order to have a robust and effective housing institution that can cater for the needs of all the people seeking good affordable housing and accommodation throughout the country. The Minister and Member for Tewai- Siasi Open Dr. Kobby Bomareo, said the NHC has legacy issues which are aligned with allegations of corruption over the years, but the minister said a lot of things are now being done to fix the matters in house. Minister Bomareo said this whilst responding to the questions from the Member for Abau Sir Puka Temu, who was basing his questions on a recent case where a family in Port Moresby was allegedly illegally forced out of their home of 40 years. The minister said as part of the cleanup campaign in housing, he has instructed the review of the eviction process, which he said has been abused for a long time. “Housing has a process of evicting tenants, when they identify that a tenant has not complied with housing regulations, a notice must be issued out first and then followed up on. If the tenant continues to defy the instructions, then officers move in to evict. Not the other way around where a straight on 24 hours eviction notice is given.” “Don’t evict the tenants yet until we identify their issues before we move forward,” he said. He also said that some officers in the NHC were removed because they stepped out of line when performing their duties. “Some officers tend to go outside the line and in January, I had to remove five managers because of this reason I have to admit. Follow the law, if you don’t follow it then you are gone.” The NHC’s past is tainted with corruption allegations and that does not settle well with the current government, which is way the minister said in his term in office, he will deliver the government’s aim to fix the problems and moving forward. “The Marape/ Rosso government is focusing on how best it can provide affordable homes for people to live in. I believe that with the support of the government, that be achieved. We expect everyone to have a house because housing is a human right.”

The Air Niugini Board has been instructed to review the rate in which the airline ticket prices are being set after some issues within the airline company saw the termination of some of the senior executive team members. The Minister for State owned Enterprises, William Duma, revealed in parliament today that they had to terminate two executives because of the unauthorized increases of airfares to the public. “There is a problem there and I must admit that these increases were never approved by the board of Air Niugini and never came to myself as the minister,” said Duma. “That is one of the reasons why cabinet had to make decision to let go of the CEO for Air Niugini.” He said Air Niugini is about providing fares that are affordable for the people, which was why changes had to be made to the senior executives of the Air Niugini. Minister Duma revealed all these during question time in parliament when responding to questions from the Member for North Fly, James Donald, who was asking why the cost of travel with Air Niugini from Western province out was over K1, 000 air fare for just one way.  

More information regarding the proposed construction of the Simbu Polytechnical (Polytech) Institute in the Gumine district is expected to be revealed today in parliament by the Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology. The Minister, Mr. Don Polye, in last week’s parliament sitting told the Member for Gumine Mr. Lukas Dekena, that he would respond in full to the member’s questions once he has the full details of this project. The member asked the minister as to what has become of the K41million funding allocated for the construction of the Polytech institution and what was the reason behind the delay of the construction phase. The Simbu Polytech was part of a National Executive Council (NEC) decision, decision 185 of 2014, to establish three Polytech institutions, one in Enga, one in West New Britain and the one in Simbu. Since then, the member said there has been no sign of work and the site where the proposed institution was to be built, remains idol with only a fence around the area. However, Minister Polye gave his assurance that despite the delay, some work should start soon with the construction. “That Polytech will be built and will be built properly to the process with quality,” said Polye. The minister also assured the member that he will get most of the answers to his questions especially on the funding, the delay and when construction will start.

More than 2, 600 Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) operations in the country have benefited so far from BSP Financial Group Limited SME loan products since the loan service was established over two years ago. The assistance saw the local businesses expand, generate revenue, and create more employment through the various SME Loan Products BSP offers. BSP Group General Manager for Retail, Mr. Daniel Faunt in a statement, said that the SME Credit Enhancement Scheme loan (CESL) continues to get a lot of traction in Retail Lending since its roll out on 4th October 2020. “To date, we have funded over K332million in SME Credit Enhancement Scheme Loans assisting 2, 640 SMEs. Equity requirement was reduced from 30% to 10% with an increase of funding from K3m to K5m in May of 2021. That allowed for greater participation from the SME sector in this scheme,” Mr. Faunt added. In 2022, BSP funded K310m in loans under the SME Credit Enhancement Scheme that assisted 1,699 SMEs. Overall, BSP has assisted 2,967 SMEs in the past 10 years with the various SME Lending products it offers. BSP Head of SME, Samuel Mulina said the SME Retail Lending team continues to deliver in the SME space and continued to fund loans using its own funds under the SME CESL facility despite exceeding the annual K100m support funding provided by the National Government. “Apart from the government funded Credit Enhancement Loan Scheme, BSP has been offering its own SME Lending Products since 2013; Smart Business Loan, Micro Business Loan (Agriculture), Term Business Loan (Working Capital), and Overdrafts,” Mulina said. More than 141 businesses have been assisted with K14m from BSP’s Smart Business Loan, while 64 customers have been assisted with a total funding over K657, 000 through BSP’s Micro Business Loan Products. “BSP not only gives out loans. One of our obligations as the leading financial institution is to provide financial literacy trainings in our chosen markets and the SME segment is no exception. We had 32 BSP SME customers attend our coaching sessions last November. “Developing good business habits, bookkeeping and regular cash flow deposits into business accounts helps SMEs develop good customer profiles. This is something we encourage from all SME customers. We look forward to continuing working with SMEs this year,” Mulina concluded.

The Governor for East Sepik Mr. Allen Bird is warning the government of a possible global financial crisis and that the country should start preparing for it so to deflect any further inflation in the country. The governor, during grievance debate in parliament in the recent sitting, told parliament that some of the world’s biggest banks like the Silicon Valley Bank in the United States, went bust just recently and other notable banks like the Credit Suisse Bank in Europe is also showing signs of trouble. He stressed that it’s not only that, but other major banks in the world are also showing similar signs and that should be the warning signs Papua New Guinea (PNG) must take note of and prepare itself for possible world financial crisis like the one back in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis began in Thailand and then quickly spread to neighbouring economies. “We should have a mechanism that recognizes what is happening in the other parts of the world that affects us,” said Governor Bird. “I don’t believe that we should continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that what’s happening in the global community will not affect us. “My view is that we should be doing more locally, we should be increasing local production so that we can off- set some of these things happening globally, our people in the towns and cities will feel this impact.” The governor indicated that there has to be some kind of intervention from parliament to make the economy more competitive so that it can grow. Bird fears the knock- on effects from the banks, should the major banks in Europe, the US and Asia start to collapse, PNG will be in trouble. “If other banks follow suit, a lot of our programs could be in trouble because were are borrowing from the world banks and we have significant debt owed to banks.” The governor’s call now is for the government and the parliament to start looking at measures to mitigate the impacts of a possible world financial crisis should it occurs in the very near future. By adopting sound measures, a lot could be avoided like price increases and job losses.

The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) has come out to clear the air on claims that the Acting Governor of the Bank approved a financial trading licence for Golden Sun PNG Limited. The Bank, in a statement said the notices and documents that were circulated on social media are fraudulent and were never authorized by the Bank or the Acting Governor Ms Elizabeth Genia. Golden Sun PNG Limited has not applied to the BPNG for a license and is not authorized to take deposits. The Bank encourages the public to use the authorized financial institutions and be wary of deceptive messages on social media platforms. The public has been urged to also find out and know more about money schemes and scams operating online, and the list of these institutions is published in the newspapers from time to time and on the Bank's website www.bank¬ png.gov.pg. The Bank continues to remind people not to invest their hard-earned money with money schemes or scams because they a fraudulent and in the end, the people will lose all their money to these crooks.