President of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Resources and Energy or PNG CORE, Anthony Smare says the Community Affairs and National Content Conference and Expo or CANCONEX is a safe space for uncomfortable courageous conversations.

Smare made the comment during the conclusion of the 2024 National Community Affairs & National Content Conference & Expo. CANCONEX, the conference and Expo started on the 1st and ended on the 3rd of July, and was hosted by the University of Papua New Guinea.

There were presentations by companies and stakeholders in the Mining, Petroleum and Energy sectors, and afterwards panel discussions, creating interaction between Resource Landowners, activists and Major Companies in the extractive and Energy industries.

With the focus on Community Affairs and Local Content, discussions on challenges and innovations in improving and addressing issues of national interest, that affect resource landowners and companies alike, were presented to over a thousand attendees over the three days.

One of the highlights of the CANCONEX was a continuation of last years inaugural CANCONEX in Lae, which featured the Issues of Bougainville; this years edition also welcomed the resource landowners from Bougainville and key partners which included the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and the Panguna Land Owners.

Sensitive discussions on the legacy issues of the Panguna mine and the progress of reopening the mine took center stage, with the audience very much in tune.

The President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB), Ishmael Toroama, was present, he gave a speech and later the president was part of a panel discussion with BCL, and representatives of the Landowners, which included Theonila Roka Matbob, member for the Ioro Constituency in Central Bougainville, which is part of the Panguna mine area.

President of PNG CORE, Anthony Smare was invested in the conversations and facilitated the panel discussion, on Bougainville issues, he stressed during the closing of CANCONEX that the discussions were informative and very diverse.

“We need safe spaces for uncomfortable courageous conversations, we saw this in the session, the ABG President was here and Bougainville Copper Limited was here, BCL was not welcome back to Bougainville for 20 years, But I was surprised to hear them say that, mining was essential to grow their economy, as the President had said.

“But they were doing it in a way that they knew they had legacy issues and through processes such as remediation in which the people and the ABG are involved in, and that illustrates the importance of having safe spaces where extremely diverse views can be heard where people don’t take it personally but they realize its important to build a future where people feel included and they own that future,” Smare added.

With the convergence of resource owners and companies together not all views are agreed to, but like the President of PNG CORE alluded to in his closing remarks, the convention attendees are always expected to keep an open mind when observing discussions.

“I salute the companies that support this and that sponsor this, because they know that the people that are most uncomfortable with these conversations are the companies themselves, when they hear being mentioned.

“CANCONEX is successful because of what we want people to commit to when they come in, which is to open your mind to opinions which you don’t agree with, with people you don’t necessarily agree with or that you think you have nothing in common with, someone you have never met before, and this event only works because of the commitment the attendees make, you attend all the sessions and you talk to the interns the CEOs, Resource Landowners and community activists you have a whole spectrum that come here,” Smare added.