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Paga Hill Paradise

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Prime Minister James Marape has urged investors to have confidence and invest in Papua New Guinea.

“My government or the government I lead do not care about colour, which political divide or which religion you come from or what tribe, we want to encourage business investments,” Marape said.

He said this at the groundbreaking ceremony of the K130 million Paga Hill Paradise development – a 22-floor high-end apartments building project.

The luxury accommodation will be built on the added backfield land on the Port Moresby beachfront just as the ring road takes a bend overlooking the old Fairfax Harbour.

Mr Marape said the country is loyal to investors who are loyal to the country.

“This is a country that has shown its ability to repay our investors a substantial amount on return on investment,” Prime Minister Marape said.

Governor Powes Parkop thanked Asian businessman Jimmy Po and other investors for having trust in the Capital city and for their commitment to ensuring modern facilities for accommodation.

He added the city government has devised the “Amazing Port Moresby global branding to promote the city as a liveable city but the government can’t do it alone.

“For me as a governor I’ve been very passionate about making it happen but it’s been taking a long time. But today, the journey has begun and I thank the investors,” Governor Parkop said.

Lead architect Andrew McFadden said the building meets international standards both from PNG and Australia and is a project that involved input from local knowledge.

The building will be constructed by China State Engineering, a company that has its footprint in the construction of hotels and accommodations including the Ela Beach paradise, Toaguba hill paradise and construction of an office building at Waigani.

An Artist’s impression of the Paga Hill, Paradise 22-floor Luxury Apartment

While the beachfront luxury is yet to be built, interested occupants have purchased 67 units and duplexes out of the 83.

The lowest accommodation is valued at K1.3 million and a whole floor on the 19th worth K10 million has been paid ahead of opening time.

The residential building is expected to be completed after two years.

An Artist’s impression of the Paga Hill, Paradise 22-floor Luxury Apartment
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Sport

Ramu NiCo Supports Local Rugby Club

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Ramu NiCo Management Limited (RNML), through its Community Affairs Department, has chipped in to support a local rugby union team – the Newtown Jabaris.

RNML has supported the Newtown Jabaris with jerseys purchased straight from the dealer Tati Sports, at a cost of over K5000.

Formerly known as the Newtown Malabeks Rugby Union 7s Club, the team is made up of youths in their late teens and early 20s from Malabor Street, in the Newtown residential area of Madang Town.

RNML’s Assistant President and General Manager, Health Safety and Environment, Mr Jason Jia, prior to making the cheque presentation said that the company will continue to support youth activities in Madang, and are happy to assist such sporting initiatives.

Team Captain Dunstan Kaluwin expressed gratitude to Ramu NiCo for the assistance and said the team will wear the new jerseys in the Mayor 9s Tournament, which is currently underway.

The tournament started on the 3rd and will run through to the 25th of September, a four-weekend tournament for both men and women at the Ron Albert Oval in Madang Town.

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News

Papua LNG Project Signing

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Director of the Gas Project Coordination office Peter Koim said the paperwork to ensure the Papua LNG engineering will be ready in the coming week.

“I think we are expecting the Papua LNG front-end and end engineering design very soon, most likely it will coincide with the independence celebrations,” he said.

Director Koim spoke to the media after the government renewal of his employment for another four years at Government House.

“Once the project feed is announced, then they will announce the final investment decisions and move into construction,” he said.

He was involved in the Pynang, Pasca A and Stanley Gas Condensate project in the Western province.

All four projects are on the radar for commercialisation.

Mr Koim said, “Once we have those projects up and running, we hope to see most of our young people running around employed in different capacities. “

“These are billion-dollar projects and they will create a lot of employment, development and economy for the country,” he added.

The Gas Coordination office facilitates all the new LNG gas project negotiations and after the gas agreements are signed, proceeds on monitoring the implementation of the projects.

These include front-to-end engineering design as well as the conclusion of construction before the Department of Petroleum takes over.

Mr Koim continued, “With all the world energy prices going up, we stand to benefit from these developments”.

“Going forward I will be monitoring the implementation of the signed gas agreements which is Papua LNG and Pynang LNG projects”.

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News

Review of Real Estate Laws Endorsed

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Key stakeholders of the Real Estate Industry in PNG have endorsed a draft report that will be presented to Government to review later this year.

In a seminar held in Port Moresby last week, the stakeholders including the Constitution and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) highlighted the urgent challenges surrounding the industry.

These include the lack of strong policy, legislative framework, outdated laws and overlapping administrative and regulatory functions.

CLRC Secretary Dr Mange Matui said PNG’s Real Estate Industry has huge economic potential but the regulatory regime is weak, disjointed and loose to enable the industry to unleash its potential.

“As a result, the real estate industry has been subsumed to the whims of market forces, creating unjust outcomes,” he said.

The report also highlights other associated issues on political interference and bureaucratic corruption, mismatch in supply and demand, income disparity, high costs, urbanization, migration and settlements, land scarcity and accessibility, informal home rent business, lack of skilled labour, quality of construction materials and poor designs and decentralizations.

All these are experienced throughout the country, especially in urban areas like Port Moresby where land grabbing, illegal settlements and high costs of substandard housing are on the rise.

Dr Matui added the recommendations address the issues legally, economically, administratively, and socially in terms of a proper policy.

“The recommendations are basically about how we as a country bring together the different pieces of laws, policies and functions of different key players in the industry to properly and effectively manage, coordinate, and regulate the industry for the ultimate gain,” Matui said.

The report will be presented to NEC towards the end of the year.

The Stakeholders including officers of CLRC during the seminar in Port Moresby. Picture by CLRC Media
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Business

A Thousand Days of Safety

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South Pacific Brewery recently announced that both their Port Moresby and Lae facilities have both achieved 1000 consecutive days (2.74 years) without an injury, incident, or accident resulting in time off work at their breweries.

This marks a significant safety milestone for our staff and company. Port Moresby Brewery Manager Coen Oreel stated “The first goal of going to work is going home safely”,

“Safety is important to us, and we strive to maintain a strong commitment to secure practices for all our employees”

This significant achievement is the result of the brewery’s constant drive to adopt best practices and standards to align the company to the most updated safety processes and principles.

SP Brewery Safety Information

Oreel added that every day is a new record for the brewery and reminded everyone that they need to practice safety every day.

The Lae Brewery on Saturday 03rd September 2022 also recorded 1000 days without any accidents.

Lae Brewery Manager Stella Ikasa said they are now looking forward to passing their record of 1533 days without any recordable accidents.

In celebrating the significant milestone, Lae Brewery held a small acknowledgment function for the employees.

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News

Water Levels Low at Yonki Dam

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PNG Power Limited (PPL) has confirmed that water levels at its Yonki Dam catchment have reached a critical level due to an unusually dry season experienced in the area.

The reduced water levels have forced PNG Power to decrease generating capacity and carry out load shedding on the Ramu Grid, which supplies power to Lae, Madang and the Highlands Provinces.

The Ramu Hydropower Station is operating at 35% of its total generation capacity, due to the reduced water levels in the reservoir. PPL is accelerating projects to rehabilitate alternate power generating supplies, to reduce the need for load shedding. However, load shedding will continue until water levels improve substantially and generating capacity can return to normal operations.

Similar issues are occurring at Sirinumu Dam in Port Moresby, supplying the Rouna Hydropower Station and the river system feeding the Warangoi Hydropower Station in East New Britain.

Meanwhile, Independent Power Producers (IPP) are continuing to meet generating capacity shortfalls, especially in Lae with Posco Daewoo (Munum Power Station) and PNG Forest Products through their Baiune Power Station.

PNG Power is appealing to the general public to be mindful of water use and to conserve and ration water supplies when possible. The situation is unlikely to improve in the short term.

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Politics

Revenue from a Black Economy

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Gary Juffa_Inside PNG

A member of parliament has urged government to ensure the revised 2022 money plan is implemented soundly.

Northern Governor, Gary Juffa said while many local citizens were being over taxed and paying their dues, others weren’t.

“We have a black economy! It is an area where a lot of illegal activities happen or taxes are evaded or transferred,” Governor Juffa said.

The former PNG Customs Chief turned politician said, “The black economy has billions of Kina in there that never make it into our (PNG) coffers”.

He alleged that there were illegal activities taking place outside PNG waters.

“Did you know Mr. Treasurer, that significant or large volumes of fuel used by some of the players in this black economy, especially those in the forestry sector and those in the fisheries sector come across from the borders of Indonesia?”

“They are never taxed, they just hover outside our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zones), ships go out (to sea) and get the fuel and come here and spread it out to their operations, and they pay absolutely no excise duty on this,” Garry Juffa said.

“We need to take these guys (companies not paying tax) on, we need to hold them accountable, we are not doing that!” Governor Juffa added.

“Most of it is transmitted offshore to build empires in other countries,” he concluded.

He said it was time institutions of government step up, and ensure that they serve the interest of the nation with integrity.

“We need to carry out a review of all the creatures (government entities) that we have created”.

According to an Attorney General’s report of the year 2018, 1419 government entities are operating in the country.

“Many of these organizations are performing in the best interest of the country, they are assets but there are a great number of them that are liabilities,” Governor Juffa said.

“They have executives, some have boards, they have a budget line, we don’t know what they do.

The state entities soak up significant amounts of money that ought to go to schools, aid posts, roads, bridges etc,” said Juffa.

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News

Supplementary Budget Tabled

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Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey_Inside PNG

The seven new electorates have been included in the Supplementary budget of 2022 which captures revenue from reviewed tax measures, plus surge in global oil prices, versus a K611 million Household Assistance Package.

“We have major increase in net revenues as well as the need for specific appropriations such as, K160 million school project fee subsidies announced as part of our household Assistance package,” Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey said in parliament.

The Supplementary budget is framed following the country’s election aimed at continuing the promise by government to steer the country to the Prime Minister’s dream of “becoming the richest black Christian nation.”

“There is also the need to provide additional funding for the seven (7) new districts that have been created and K3million each has been provided,” he said.

This is Ling-Stuckey’s fourth Supplementary Budget since being elevated to the Ministry and one that is still framed amidst pressure from external economic conditions.

“(Budget) is framed in what the IMF (International Monetary Fund) calls, the ‘gloomy and uncertain‘ outlook for the global economy, however, there are promising economic times ahead for PNG.

“PNG is experiencing by far its highest growth rate, in the Kina size of our economy in its history,” the treasurer added.

While the announcement may seem as welcome news for many, the real pressure of the rising price of goods and services is still being felt by the average Papua New Guineans.

“As highlighted in the comments on MYEFO (Mid Year Economic Fiscal Outlook) report, we must make sure, that positive macro economic news, does not blind us to the pain being faced by many families,” he said.

The priority areas of government expended through the K611million Household Assistance include:

  1. K250 million for continued removal on tax on all fuel products.
  2. K126 million for school project fees.
  3. K135 million from Tax collection
  4. K100 million for subsidizing household commodities.

Tax measures are again a key feature in the 2022 revised money plan, this time with cuts in Personal Income Tax for all wage earners.

“I was pleased that from 1 June 2022, all wage earners paying tax are receiving up to an extra K42.30, in their fortnightly pay packets,” Ling-Stuckey said.

He also noted the Additional Profits Tax which was supposed to be implemented on the banking sector, has not been implemented.

“For some reason, the tax cuts have not been processed, through the ALESO pay (roll) system”, the Treasurer said.

Another initiative of the Pangu led government is to subsidize household items.

“In April, we announced, that arrangements will be made by IRC with local firms, whereby firms would lower cost on key items such as flour, tinned fish, rice and OX and palm and in return they would be granted an equivalent reduction in taxes,” Ling-Stuckey said.

The assistance, however, took time to implement earlier this year because of the need for several legislative changes.

“We apologize for the delay…we will be watching closely the performance of IRC in this area, to ensure the changes are put in place this year,” he said.

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News

Online Visa Auto-Grant Function Reactivated

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IN an effort to reduce the high number of visa applications and turnaround time for clients, the Minister for Immigration and Labour, Bryan Kramer, reactivated the visa auto-grant function for selected visa classes on Wednesday (August 31).

Kramer said the visa auto-grant system operates independently, and when the applicant meets all the requirements of a selected visa class, the visa is automatically granted and emailed to their nominated email address almost instantaneously.

“This system is now available. PNG Immigration have used it before during the APEC in 2018, the Women’s Soccer World Cup and the Pacific Games in Port Moresby to facilitate large volumes of delegates. I want to reactivate this in a similar way but with strict conditions attached to the auto-grant letters,” he said.

The auto-grant only applies to visitors who apply online and meet all requirements under the visitor visa classes including Tourists (own itinerary and tour package), visiting relative, yacht person (crew and owner), easy visitor permit (30/60 days) and the Restricted Employment Visa.

The Minister said the auto-grant will allow tourists and visitors on short-term visits to get their visa granted immediately instead of waiting for seven days to get an approval.

He said the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) will step up its compliance and enforcement efforts to ensure visitors are complying with the conditions set out in the auto-grant letters.

“With limited staff on strength, I am taking this option so personnel in the department can concentrate on other visa categories that need careful assessment and consideration. The auto-granting of applications does not in any way compromise the integrity of our systems or pose security risks as there are border officers to monitor any unusual movements,” Kramer says.

Minister Kramer re-launched the auto-grant system at the PNG ICA Headquarters in Waigani, Port Moresby, witnessed by senior officials from the department, and the media.

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