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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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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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Business

Morobe Mining Company Locked out of Office

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Morobe Alluvial Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Morobe Mineral Holdings Limited, the business arm of the Provincial Government owes huge amounts of rental payment and its staff unpaid salary.

Staff based in Lae, told the media yesterday, that they were laid off by the MAML Management for almost four months without any good reasons, or an official document.

They petitioned the management concerning the alleged non-payment of their salaries and Nasfund contributions.

On the 20th of July, a list came out confirming names of almost 60 employees who were being laid off by the company.

After the Management failed to address their petition, over 30 staff went and sought help from the Labour Department.

The Provincial Labour and Industrial Relations office then wrote a letter to MAML Human Resource Manager on the 25th of July, 2022 stating the employees’ complaint concerning the following;

  1. Non-payment of outstanding fortnightly wages and entitlements for 5 staff who ceased employment.
  2. Non-payment of fortnightly wages for 14 employees for 7 fortnights.
  3. Non-payment of staff Nasfund contributions.  

The Labour office urged the company to immediately settle the outstanding fortnights for the employees who ceased employment and to settle the outstanding non-payment of wages and Nasfund contributions.

The Labour Office further stated that Morobe Alluvial Mining Limited has breached the Employment Act for failing to pay the staff outstanding payments and should respond within 14 days. 

According to the staff, the MAML Management Headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Brigitta Pondros again failed to pay the employees outstanding wages and Nasfund Contributions.

They followed up with the Labour Office again, but they didn’t receive any positive response.

The employees are currently renting and leaving in town with school aged children. They told the media that they are suffering because of the company’s ignorance.

An employee who refused to be named said, “The Company is a good concept by the Morobe Provincial Government under the Leadership of Morobe’s Former Governor, Ginson Saonu, but it’s not managed properly.”

 A lot of money is used on hire cars and accommodation rentals for the Managers.

Inside PNG went to get a response from the MAML Management located at Lae’s Velerumana Building’s 4th floor, however, the doors were locked with padlocks.

We were advised that the company was told to leave the building due to non-payment of rentals.

According to the Morobe Mines, Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Office, Morobe Alluvial Mining Limited receives K5 million from the Provincial Government since 2020. 

Morobe Alluvial Mining Company headed by CEO Briggitta Pondros was established on the 14th of May 2020 by Morobe’s former Governor Ginson Saonu and is operating under the umbrella of Morobe Mineral Holdings Limited.

MMHL is a group of company operating with various Alluvial Dredging and Exploration Activities in Morobe and is a subsidiary company of Morobe Provincial Government.

The affected employees of MAML called on the Morobe Mineral Resource Holdings, Acting Provincial Administrator, Bart Impambonj and the Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge to address their concerns with the management of MAML.

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Business

BSP Partners with Queen Pads PNG

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BSP and Queen Pads PNG Partnership

Queen Pads PNG, a locally owned SME that supplies locally made menstrual pads to help young girls and women in rural communities by conducting awareness and supplying their products has partnered with BSP Financial Group Limited.

This support will help the work and product distribution of Queen Pads PNG.

BSP recently purchased 1000 Queen Pads products, to help the SME distribute and conduct awareness to encourage menstrual health and hygiene in rural communities.

“We are a community oriented bank that believes in people. We also strongly support health, women and girls in communities and invest in where we believe can elevate community levels, especially in rural areas,” said BSP Corporate sponsorship Manager, Amelia Minnopu.

“As the largest private sector employers in the region, BSP employs over 4,000 staff, with women making up 50% of the workforce.”

“These products are made of durable, environmentally friendly and gentle cloths that can last for up to five years and it’s useful for female that can help is many ways. This entailed well with our Go Green campaign in supporting awareness on environmental risks. Moreover, it is an innovative new way to decrease our environmental impact,” Minnopu said.

She added that this support aims to contribute positively towards community building and reducing health risks within societies.

Founder and owner of Queens Pads PNG, Ann- Shirley Korave said around 80% of women and girls in rural areas still do not have access to basic hygienic sanitary pads, hence, the support from BSP will help in her work to reach the wider communities.

“Menstrual Health and Hygiene is essential to the well-being and empowerment of women and adolescent girls,” added Korave.

BSP and Queen Pads PNG’s partnership is a way forward in supporting women and girls in schools, workplaces and rural and local communities. More importantly, breaking the silence around it in the communities.

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Natural Resources

K14.8M in Royalties Paid out by the Ramu Nickel Project

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Landowners of the four project impact areas of the Ramu Nickel Project under Ramu NiCo Management Limited, were paid their royalty payment totalling to K14.8 million for the year 2021 on July 20th, 2022.

The landowner groups that the payments were made to include Kurumbukari, Inland Pipeline, Coastal Pipeline and Basamuk. Kurumbukari got a portion of approximately K8.6 million, Inland and Coastal Pipeline LO’s got approximately K2 million each while Basamuk Los got a portion of approximately K3 million respectively.

All payments made totals to the grand total of royalty payment to LO’s for 2021, including the other years concerned. The recent payments are the 6th made by the company since production began in 2013.

Jacob Winis, Principal Landowner of Memeume 1 and Chairman of the Maigari (Inland Pipeline) Landowners Association said, the royalty payments made by Ramu NiCo has contributed immensely in improving the people’s state of living by having access to basic services.

“The royalty payments made by Ramu NiCo to the landowners has helped us in setting up small Businesses or projects, supporting us with school fees, access to health services and I see that there is actual change” Winis said.

The first royalty payments made were in 2018, for years 2013 to 2017, paid in two separate accumulated payments; first payment of approximately K25.5 million was made in June of 2018. While the second  payment of K8 million plus, was made in the same year for July to December of 2017.

Royalty payment of approximately K16.3 million for 2018 was made in 2019, for 2019, approximately K26.2 million was made in 2020. 2020’s payment of K 17.3 million approximately was made in 2021.

With the most Recent payment of approximately K14.8 million made this year, for 2021. A total of K108.1 million in royalties has been paid since 2018 to landowners.

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Natural Resources

Ramu NiCo’s High Risk Workers Trained

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High Risk Workers of Ramu NiCo Management Limited’s Kurumbukari Mine, engaged in the High Risk Work field, have undergone the Verification of Competency training over a seven week period in March and April of 2022.

The VOC training are for those employees that were already certified but needed to be reassessed in terms of their competency levels to ensure that they are brought up to speed again.

A specialist crane operator with Harness Energy Training Company based in Port Moresby, Palikatap Pokanau, conducted the training including the recent session at Ramu NiCo’s Kurumbukari Mine in July.

“The recent training included overhead crane observation and assessment for 100 plus employees that were put in the logbook in various other training including rigging and dogging” Pokanau said

“About 45 are doing overhead crane training, three were put on the logbook for slew crane operations, over 20 did dogging and another 20 plus doing basic rigging were assessed”

Pokanau stated that certificates are only issued upon results being sent to Port Moresby, and that all training is conducted in compliance with Australian Standards.

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Sport

Jack’s of PNG is official Supplier of Team PNG Merchandise

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The Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee have today unveiled Jack’s of PNG as the Team PNG Merchandise supplier and Corporate Partner of the PNGOC for 2022 and 2023.

One of the leading clothing retailers in Papua New Guinea, Jack’s of PNG today sealed a two-year merchandise partnership which saw the PNGOC award the supplier the licensing rights to its Team PNG brand to manufacture, advertise and distribute Team PNG merchandise apparel for the two-year period.

The merchandising agreement allows the PNGOC to provide its Team PNG trademark to Jacks of PNG to create an agreed range of Team PNG supporter apparel for the general public to purchase from all Jack’s of PNG retail outlets.

In addition to the licensing agreement, Jack’s of PNG has also pledged sponsorship in kind to the PNGOC to the value of K100,000 over the two-year period (2022-2023). The value in kind sponsorship covers the walkout uniforms and accessories for Team PNG to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and 2023 Solomon Islands Pacific Games in addition to Board and Staff uniforms for the organisation.

Welcoming the partnership, PNGOC Secretary General Auvita Rapilla stated “Jack’s PNG came on board last year sponsoring Team PNG’s walk out uniform for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and we are pleased to see this partnership extend to include Team PNG Merchandise”.

Rapilla acknowledged and thanked the Jacks of PNG Board for having the confidence in the Team PNG brand and for taking up this new challenge to market and promote the Team PNG merchandise to the general public.

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Business

Locals undergo training at Ramu Nico’s Kurumbukari Mine

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Communities in the impacted areas of Ramu NiCo’s Kurumbukari mine were given a chance to undergo various trainings in the extraction process.

Ramu NiCo has been providing employment for locals especially, since operations began in 2012. The company has so far trained and employed locals in the impacted areas to work in various fields that don’t need specific qualifications.

The Kurumbukari mine, in July of 2022, recruited 22 locals of whom 18 were trained to run and operate the Volvo Articulated Dump Truck and four for excavator trainings from the surrounding communities in the impacted zone.

Their training started on Thursday 7th  July, 2022 and will continue until all the apprentices are familiarized with the functions of the vehicle.

The 18 trainees started off with their T – 1 training at the mine pit and will continue to do their T- 2 Training (800 hours on the job training) and will later be verified based on their competency before joining the work force as qualified Volvo ADT A40E truck operators.

The exercise provides an employment opportunity for locals to work with Ramu NiCo. The 22 locals Selected were from the four major clans around the Kurumbukari Mine site.

This was based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) between Ramu NiCo and the landowners.

Recommendations for training and employment are made by village leaders in the impacted zone of the Ramu NiCo project. Under this program each clan leader who are affiliated with the Company’s Community Affairs Office recommend locals who are able to work in the various fields.

General Manager of Ramu NiCo’s Kurumbukari Mine, Mr. Joseph Umare said the job/employment Opportunity for the mine is given back to the locals as priority.

“Ramu NiCo had been a major contributor of employment to landowners living in the impacted areas Around the Kurumbukari Basin, especially in the Usino Bundi District and parts of Rai Coast District.

The Company recruits 90 % of its employees from Madang Province with the remaining 10%, from other provinces,” Umare said.

He said the training will qualify them to work in the mine’s operations after they finish their T-1 and T-2.

Training respectively including a three-month probationary period. A proud local and trainee Mr. Rex Minembo said, they are very proud to be accepted by the company.

“We are proud to wear the company uniforms and to learn how to operate the mine truck,” Minembo said

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Business

Nasfund’s Membership Discount Program renewed with PNG Air Partnership

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Papua New Guinea’s leading superannuation provider, Nasfund and airline service provider, PNG Air, recently met to renew their partnership.

Through their collaboration, Nasfund members can now access a discount of K50 on one-way airfares through the Fund’s Membership Discount Program (MDP).

“Since the easing of restrictions, we have noted an increase in the demand for travel within Papua New Guinea.

“As a nationally-owned airline, it is in our best interest to make air travel more affordable and accessible.

“Given the current economic situation, we are pleased to renew our partnership with Nasfund to provide this discount to the Fund’s active contributors,” said Simon C. Pitt, PNG Air Chief Commercial Officer.

To claim this discount, Nasfund members will have to show their Nasfund membership ID card, when purchasing their tickets at PNG Air sales offices.

This offer is also redeemable on the PNG Air website. A promo code ‘NASFUND22’ will have to be used when booking until November 30th 2022, and ‘NASFUND23’ when booking from February 1st 2023 onwards. Members can travel at any time, except within the aforementioned dates.

The discount is now available for members and their beneficiaries, and will be in place for the next 12 months.

CEO, Ian Tarutia welcomed the renewed MDP agreement and thanked PNG Air for their commitment to provide affordable air travel for Nasfund Members.

“This offer certainly provides more value for our members, especially during these challenging times.

“We encourage our members to take advantage of this partnership, to save more while you work today.

We are committed to work together to provide value for our members while they work, so that they are ready for tomorrow,” Tarutia added.

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Business

Nasfund Welcomes New Members on Lihir Island

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The National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) recently welcomed 800 new contributing members on Lihir Island.

They are employees of 200 landowner companies who provide services to Newcrest Mining Limited (NML), through Lihir Business Services (LBS).

All 200 landowner companies this week received their Employer Registration Certificates, confirming their membership to Papua New Guinea’s leading superannuation provider.

CEO Ian Tarutia in welcoming the newly registered employers, praised the management of each entity for their decision to provide a secure financial future for their employees through superannuation savings with Nasfund.

“The process in registering our new members is one that was made possible through cooperation from NML, LBS, and our Nasfund Lihir service centre.

“The bulk registration of our new members on Lihir island is one of the largest we have had, and is a testament to the great working relationship we have with the local business community.

This also demonstrates the importance that businesses, whether large or small, place on retirement savings for their employees.

As members of Nasfund, these members now benefit from our cadre of services, which includes our online platforms, TextBal service, and our popular Membership Discount Program (MDP).

We are committed to providing value for these members while they work today, so that they are ready for retirement, when the time comes,” said Tarutia.

(L-R): Nasfund General Manager Member & Employer Services, Anne Wilson, presenting an Employer Registration Certificate to Director of Tasio Limited, Barbara Siomel, and Acting General Manager Lihir Business Systems, Assumpta Wauwau.

In receiving the Employer Registration Certificates, Lihir Business Services Acting General Manager, Assumpta Wauwau, thanked the Fund for its efforts in ensuring all requirements were met, for the contractors to join Nasfund.

“This is a milestone for LBS in achieving the superfund compliance requirement for its 200 plus contractors under the LBS/Newcrest vendor agreement.

Having the Nasfund General Manager Member & Employer Services, Anne Wilson, on the island to handover the certificate signifies the importance of this achievement given the volume of employer and member registrations at any one time.

LBS commends the company owners and directors of the Lihirian owned businesses for their cooperation in registering with Nasfund, to safeguard the retirement savings of their employees.

The face-to-face meeting with the fund team leads over the duration of this exercise has also given assurance to the employers and new and existing Nasfund members on Lihir that they are just within reach should they encounter unexpected delays in resolving any of their superannuation related queries.”

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