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Israeli Businesses Offered Land

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Israeli Business

Prime Minister James Marape has offered land in a special economic zone in Papua New Guinea for interested Israeli businesses.

Marape extended the invitation to Israel Manufacturers Association to engage in business opportunities in PNG, hours after touching down in Tel Aviv on Monday.

“I would like to offer you land. As you give us land for our Embassy here, we would like to offer you land, not just for your mission in Port Moresby, but a big piece of land for a Special Economic Zone for Israeli businesses to take residence in our country to do business, to mount your satellite, and do business,” said Marape.

The Prime Minister flew to Israel to open PNG’s newest Embassy in Jerusalem.

While there, Marape spoke strongly about PNG’s resources in the oil, gas and mining space and sustainable resources in Forestry, Agriculture, and Fisheries.

“We have natural resources in oil and gas, and in our forestry, fisheries and agriculture. We have more than enough land for you to come in and start your businesses, and I am willing to give you tax-free incentives,”said Marape.

He said with PNG’s geographical location in relation to Asia and its thriving markets, Israeli businesses would do well for themselves to invest in Papua New Guinea.

“We are closest to the Asian markets. We are linked to many Asian countries at a government-to-government level. That is the competitive advantage we have over many other countries,” said Marape.

“Together, we can produce, label these as Israel-PNG produce, and export to the world. PNG is close to the Asian market than you are from Israel,” said Marape.

Israel’s main export commodity item has been High Technology Industries offering solutions to improve business, trade and investment, health, agriculture and education .

Senior Advisor on International Relations at the Manufacturers Association of Israel and President of the Federation of Binational Chambers of Commerce, Dan Catarivas said Israeli’s economic has advanced in the last 75 years.

In terms of business establishments in Papua New Guinea, Israel has invested in the Innovation Agriculture and Farming businesses in Port Moresby, East Sepik and the Highlands Region.

With these established businesses, Marape says PNG could partner with Israel to improve how business is managed and operated..

The delegation that accompanied Prime Minister Marape include State Ministers and senior government officials.

Israeli Business
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Business

8th Pacific Tuna Forum 2023 commences in Port Moresby

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8th Pacific Tuna Forum Kicks off in Port Moresby

THE Acting Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea and Minister for Lands and Physical Planning, John Rosso, officially opened the 8th Pacific Tuna Forum this morning in Port Moresby in the presence of Ministers and Departmental Heads from the fisheries sectors across the Pacific region.

Under the theme, “Strengthening Tuna Sustainability and Industry development in the ‘Blue Pacific Continent’ through increased innovation, partnership and participation”, stakeholders will address challenges faced by the regional tuna industry and chart a course forward for the future of the tuna resource and whole industry.

Managing Director of the Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority said, the last Tuna Forum in 2019 was disrupted by Covid-19 but this year’s conference is well represented by all the Pacific nations.

“Pacific island countries value the importance of maintaining dialogue. These meetings have assisted countries in the region to come together and develop common positions and strategies to ensure the sustainable management of tuna in our region”, Ilakini said.

Mr Phil Roberts, Chairman of the 8th Pacific Tuna Forum and Board Director of Tri Marine International Pte Ltd, Singapore who described PNG as a ‘True leader in Pacific Industry and tuna management’ said the challenge now is maintaining the momentum whilst facing global challenges such as climate change and the developments in the industry through the creation of jobs and economic activity.

Head of event organizing Partners

“Fisheries in the Western Pacific is the best managed in the world, there’s a lot to do but I feel optimistic,” he said.

The Pacific Tuna forum is known for its impact on the sustainable management of tuna resources and preserving the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The two-day forum will focus on key areas including Sustainable fisheries management; Ecosystem Conservation; Climate Resilience; Market Access and Trade; and Indigenous and Local Knowledge.

Expected outcomes from the forum discussions include Policy Recommendations, Innovative Solutions, Stakeholder Collaboration and Public Awareness for Tuna Fishing and Marine Resource sectors in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The 8th Pacific Tuna forum is organized by the National Fisheries authority of Papua New Guinea with INFOFISH and regional partners including the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Parties to the Nauru Agreement Organization and the PNG Fishing Industry Association.

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Business

Pacific Island Ministers East New Britain Initiative

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Pacific Island Ministers East New Britain Initiative meeting

Seven Fisheries Ministers and Heads of Fisheries Departments from the Pacific Region converged into East New Britain at the start of this month led by the Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources of Papua New Guinea, Jelta Wong for the Pacific Island Ministers East New Britain Initiative.

The Ministers and departmental heads were all invited to sit in on two high-level meetings to discuss key issues related to fisheries management, conservation, and sustainable development in the Pacific region.

The Forum Fisheries Committee meeting based on the U.S treaty distribution of funds was the first on the agenda. This meeting provided the platform for all heads of Fisheries in the Pacific to dialogue on how best to distribute the US$6million provided by the U.S Government to island nations that are members of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) treaty.

Pacific Island Ministers East New Britain Initiative meeting
Justin Ilakini, NFA Managing Director.

Managing Director of the National Fisheries Authority, Justin Ilakini said: “the aim of this meeting is to broker a deal amongst all parties involved to reach an agreement on an equal distribution of the funds to aid in development of the sector in smaller island nations of the Pacific Region.

The second meeting, the Pacific Island Ministers East New Britain Initiative saw PNG take the lead in providing the platform for Pacific Ministers across the region to create dialogue in addressing two key issues.

The first being climate change and the second, to tap into opportunities to maximize economic returns from the Pacific’s shared tuna resource.

Mr Ilakini in a press conference in Kokopo expressed hope that the leaders will identify practical ways of implementing the forum leaders’ development aspirations as contained in the Blue Pacific Continent.

“We are leading the initiative and providing the platform for our Pacific Island leaders to have the opportunity to have a voice in speaking from their own National Levels to see how we can collaborate as a region to drive the Pacific Island interest going forward in this multi-million-dollar industry which we have come to know as one of the most lucrative industries that we have; the tuna industry.”

To this, PNG’s Minister for Fisheries explained that the whole meet was to create a purpose for the region and showcase what the region is capable of doing in this space.

He further elaborated that the focus is on creating more wealth for the Pacific and controlling the stocks of the Pacific’s shared tuna resources against world players in the global tuna market.

“It’s better that if we stand united as one, the world will know that they can’t come and pick us off one by one”

Minister Wong said, that the initiative further aims to foster dialogue on better ways to mitigate Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing; capitalize on the tuna resource; and ensure that the Pacific gets the best value from its shared tuna resource.

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Education

Journalists complete media training on Tuna

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Media training on tuna resource complete

ABOUT twenty media practitioners from Port Moresby and East New Britain completed a three-day media training course on the importance of the fisheries sector in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Region.

The aim of the media training is to ensure that journalists are better prepared to report on the  8th Pacific Tuna Forum that will be hosted by Papua New Guinea in the capital city, Port Moresby.

Training participants in discussion.
(From left) Carolyn from the Wantok Niuspaper in discussion with Godwin and Wasita from EMTV.

Part of the learnings included the growth of the National Fisheries Authority over time, their operating procedures and authoritative regulations and fishing. Among the topics of fishing was the most important, shared tuna resource of the Pacific region.

The training fostered interactive discussion between facilitators and journalists about some of the issues impacting the tuna market directly, such as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and the impacts of external forces such as climate change and COVID-19.

Discussions about preservation and sustainable management of the resource for the future of the country and the wider Pacific and its people were some of the key indicators of the workshop.

President of the Papua New Guinea Media Council, Neville Choi, who was one of four facilitators of the training, encouraged journalists to do more research on tuna and the industry after the workshop in order to effectively report on the topics.

“Tuna is a global market and it impacts some of the major countries who deal with business and economics in the Pacific and a key to understanding all of that is knowing about the fish. The fish in itself is important and where it’s going to be in the next 50 years is important to our own Pacific livelihoods.”

Another facilitator and long-time Pacific journalist, Lisa Williams-Lahari, who’s been covering and following the Tuna stories globally shared her experiences as a Pacific islander and a journalist covering tuna; a resource that is closer to the heart of the pacific people.

“As a journalist following the tuna story worldwide, PNG has really represented the tuna tigers of this region (Pacific) to the world; in terms of leadership and development; and in terms of following the dollars that our people will benefit from in the terms to come.”

The three-day media training ended with a presentation of certificates to all participants and training facilitators.

The training was initiated and funded by the National Fisheries Authority in preparation for the 8th Pacific Tuna Forum which will be hosted by Papua New Guinea at the Stanley Hotel from the 6th-7th of September in Port Moresby.

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Business

Media workers undergo training ahead of 8th Pacific Tuna Forum

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Media personnel with Tuna training facilitators and NFA members


FOURTEEN media workers from Port Moresby are joining other media workers in Kokopo for a three-day media workshop ahead of the 8th Pacific Tuna Forum to be hosted on the 6th-8th of September in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The biannual PTF is the main arena where all stakeholders gather gauge the pulse of the tuna industry in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean and the broader ‘Blue Pacific Continent’; and to keep abreast of the latest sustainable management initiatives, innovative approaches and transformational endeavors at play or that could be further harnessed for the betterment of the industry.

The media workers training is most focused tuna and the inner workings of fisheries industry and will broaden the knowledge of those in attendance.

It is also an essential step toward understanding the importance of the tuna resource in and around the Pacific Region and will help journalists and reporters better cover the event and write stories about the 8th PTF next week.

Facilitators of the trainings include representatives from the Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authorities, Forum Fisheries Agency and Pacific Island Forum Secretariat. Representing the PNG Media Council, President, Neville Choi will be facilitating a session on media ethics around the reporting of tuna resources and story writing in today’s training session.

The media training is hosted by the PNG National Fisheries Authority at the Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort in Kokopo, East New Britain.

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Business

Ramu NiCo to Feature Women LO Group at Inaugural CANCONEX

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Ramu NiCo will Feature Women Landowner Group at Inaugural CANCONEX

Ramu NiCo’s Coastal Pipeline Landowners Women’s Association (CPL WA) from the Rai Coast District in the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea will be participating in the inaugural Community Affairs and National Content Conference and Expo (CANCONEX) in Lae, Morobe Province as one of the successful association along the projects corridor area.

The CPL WA is a successful women’s landowner group and comprises of three zones that are Bugati, Marika and Siroi.

It has 3000 active registered members who successfully ventured into financially viable projects and businesses.

These have come to fruition from the portion of royalties allocated to the women’s group.

The portion, in most cases, is used as capital to acquire loans from the People’s Micro Bank branch in Madang to buy trucks and dinghies, which are being used as public motor vehicles (PMVs) to serve the local people living within the mining tenement area, venture into other small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

The expo is set to be held at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT) in Lae, Morobe Province from the 28th to the 30th of August; Ramu NiCo is also a gold sponsor for the hosting of the event.

Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Limited will attend and participate in the first-ever CANCONEX with the theme of “Promoting National Participation for Sustainable Communities.”

With the encouragement of the President of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, Anthony Smare, the conference is an avenue for participants to share their experiences and learn from each other, make new connections, seek opportunities and experience.

Ramu NiCo saw fit that it features one of the best performing and successful landowner groups from the four impact communities to represent their fellow landowner groups.

The successful Women Association from the Ramu NiCo Project in Madang Province is one of the fruitful associations that Ramu NiCo has seen being an active association apart from all the associations in the project’s corridor. Thus, Ramu NiCo thinks highly of this successful women group and other landowner groups coming from afar to attend the CANCONEX.

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Agriculture

MARKET ACCESS FOR REMOTE COCOA FARMERS

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Cocoa farmers from a remote community living along the Sepik River are now connected to the leading cocoa industry players in the country and overseas and receive a premium price for their quality cocoa products.

With support from the EU-STREIT PNG Programme and PNG Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), MUPA Cocoa Cooperative Society, which comprised of 240 farmers from two villages in Yuat LLG of Angoram District in East Sepik Province, established a business link with Queen Emma Chocolate Company.

Recently, they sent their first shipment of quality beans to the chocolate-making company, achieving a considerably higher market price.

Director of MUPA Cocoa Cooperative Ltd, Sperian Kapia said the company is paying a higher rate for their dried beans at K630 per bag, which is more than the average price offered by intermediary buyers.

Their first shipment consisted of 40 bags of quality dried beans, fetched an additional K4,000 into the cooperative’s bank account.

The EU-STREIT PNG Programme is working on improving the access of local agricultural enterprises to domestic and overseas markets.

This includes organising exposure visits to national and international agri-food trade shows, where the Sepik-based agripreneurs can learn, interact, identify potential buyers, and forge new business opportunities.

Kapia was one of the Sepik cocoa model farmers who participated in the International Food Service & Hospitality Exhibition in Singapore in August 2022, where he initiated the market link with Queen Emma Chocolate Company.

“It was there that Queen Emma Chocolate’s representatives showed interest in our cocoa and invited me to visit their factory in Port Moresby. We reached to an agreement to supply the company with our unique cocoa dried beans,” said Kapia.

Kapia said with these support, they were also introduced to a new potential buyer from New Zealand, the Pacific Cocoa 380.

“The EU-STREIT PNG Programme assisted us in freighting 20 KG of our cocoa dried beans to New Zealand, where they tasted our cocoa, and has shown interested in the quality.”

Kapia said they have agreed to buy 15 to 20 tons of cocoa dried beans from MUPA.

This premium price paid for dried beans and extra income generated at the cooperative level, allows MUPA and affiliated fermentaries to pay a higher rate for wet beans, extending the benefits to farmers at the grassroots level, who produce and supply wet beans to fermentaries.

“The usual price for wet beans used to be lower, around K1.4 per KG, but thanks to the direct connection formed with the premium buyers, we are now able to pay farmers at a higher price, at K1.7 per KG of wet beans, which is 21 percent above the normal rate,” Kapia explained.

“This helps the parents in my community to pay for their kids’ school fees, buy utensils for their houses, and food to improve family’s diets.”

“With this support and market arrangement that gives us more money, we can also continue to support our farmers in terms of social development; we have school and want to support it in terms of infrastructure and educational material, also our health care.”

This connection and access to market is something different and promising for our farmers,” Kapia said.

Related: https://insidepng.com/eu-streit-program-partners-with-agri-enterprises/

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Agriculture

Helping Hand Honey in Goroka

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Kelly Inae dispaying his beloved bees.

Helping Hand Honey Producers is the name of the establishment founded by Kelly Inae in 2006. The location is always buzzing with life and Kelly prides himself with sharing the knowledge of bee keeping and honey production.

Located at Fimito Kafana Road in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, is the site of a bee farmers training area where honey is produced and packaged.

Plant life is important in the honey making process and for Kelly, he has amassed some hectares of land for a habitat that provides the bees with the pollen they need for honey production.

Kelly is a conservationist at heart and his habitat is a testament to that. He ensures the habitat is well looked after for trainees to see the different plants that aid in honey production.

Whilst it is a marvel to taste sweet honey straight from the hive, its a bitter sweet tale for the workers of the hive, with bees in the region falling short of a sweet finish. Production has declined in the past two years with climate change being a big challenge for the bees. But Kelly and his colleagues continue to figure out and innovate ways to improve the situation.

Honey from Papua New Guinea is much desired overseas and remains a high priced commodity both locally and globally but honey production is still at a small scale in country.

Kelly is working to export honey to Australia and is certain he will meet requirements before his first export date in November.

Kelly continues to pursue improvements in the industry and has written books and guides about bee keeping and continues to provide valuable statistics to the relevant Government bodies to help in conservation and honey production.

Helping Hand Honey

More info and contact information about Helping Hand Honey can be found at https://www.facebook.com/helpinghandhoney/ and more links to stories about Kelly and Honey production and training can be found there.

Related Story: https://insidepng.com/capacity-building-for-environment-conservation/

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News

Coca-Cola’s PET beverage bottle collection program launched

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Coca-Cola PNG has rolled out a new program to decrease the amount of plastic waste in and around the environment and encourage the collection and recycling of PET beverage bottles.

The program entails the collection of coke and other soft drink bottles for an incentive.

Tim Solly, the Commercial Director for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners PNG said, as a beverage manufacturer, it is their responsibility to have a long-term commitment to sustainability in regards to packaging.

“Packaging waste is undoubtedly a major challenge, and it’s also a solvable one if we take action”.

This collaborative exercise between CCEP PNG, Coca-Cola PNG and Branis Recycling Limited aims to prevent plastic bottle waste from going into landfill, waterways and the environment in general.

Members of the public will be crucial in contributing to the program by collecting PET plastic beverage bottles and taking them to Branis collection centres at Ahuia Street, Gordons; Spondias Street, Hohola; Movivina Street, Gerehu, Stage 6; Gordons Market and Badili, along Hurbert Murray Highway.

There, the bottles will be weighed and the consumer will be paid one kina per kilo depending on the number of plastic bottles brought in.

To help the recycling exercise of plastic bottles, Coca-Cola PNG has purchased two PET shredders to pre-process the PET bottles into flake, which is a more cost-effective material to ship offshore; prior to this, all PET beverage bottles were baled before being shipped offshore.

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Agriculture

Sapuka Villagers Focus on Rice Farming

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Igu Kisua and OTDF CEO Havini Vira holding Sapuka Rice

The village of Sapuka in the South Fly District of Western Province has embarked on a journey to achieve food security through rice farming in their area.
Last month, the community witnessed the official launch, of a food security program, aimed at empowering the people to cultivate rice and drought tolerant crops at the village level.

This initiative has gained momentum, with more than 100 farmers producing milled rice at the Community Seed Bank Centre (CSBC) since November 2022.
Igu Kisua, a community representative said, the villagers were used to rely on the forest for sustenance, but with the introduction of rice farming in their area, their lives have been transformed.

The locally produced rice has not only met the needs of the village, but it has also contributed to feeding nearby villages along the Fly River.
However, the limited capacity of the milling equipment, resulting in delays have been a challenge for farmers.

The village representative said, there is a need for a larger and more robust milling machine.

He further emphasized that downstream processing plays a pivotal role in motivating farmers.

Fresh Produce Development Agency Executive Manager, John Kewa also expressed his anticipation to support food security through a collaborative partnership with the Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF).

“We are actively working towards deploying our officers to Sapuka Village this year to provide technical assistance on the ground.” He said.

OTDF Chief Executive Officer Havini Vira acknowledged the community’s efforts in taking ownership of the food security program, which will be rolled out across the province.

He further emphasized the significance of such community-driven initiatives, as a pathway to sustainable community development.

Related: https://insidepng.com/rigo-rice-supports-domestic-rice-demand/

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