Central bank governor says economic stability dependent on kina pegging, Panguna landowners support re-opening of gold and copper mine, and 2015 Budget may be a deficit budget with ‘no significant strategic changes’. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea, Loi Bakani, says the introduction of the Kina trading band was necessary for economic stability. He  told the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry that financial dealers were trading the Kina away from the interbank mid-rate, resulting in a spread of around 600 basis points. He also said the bank has revised its projected annual headline inflation for 2014 from  6.5 per cent to 8 percent. 

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Bank of PNG’s Loi Bakani

Landowners from the nine Panguna mine area associations have called on the Jubilee Australia Research Centre in Sydney to apologise for presenting a ‘wrong, misleading and divisive picture’ of their alleged opposition to re-opening the Panguna gold and copper mine. The president of Bougainville, John Momis, says the 100 per cent opposition suggests those interviewed, numbering 65, were selected for their views.

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The 2015 Budget will be a deficit budget, with no significant shift in strategy from that of 2014, according to Finance Minister James Marape. In its latest briefing note, Deloitte economists report the Budget will still target the districts and provinces and be focussed on free education and free health care. The change, if anything, will be administrative and will affect procedures for procuring goods and services.

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Energy Minister Nixon Duban says he wants Total SA to build a second LNG plant and that gas from Elk and Antelope was unlikely to be fed into the existing ExxonMobil LNG plant. An arbitration hearing over Total’s purchase of a 40% stake the two fields from InterOil is due to be heard next month. 

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The new CEO of Newcrest Mining, Sandeep Biswas, will take home the biggest base salary of Australia’s major miners, about $2.3 million as a guaranteed base wage, before bonuses and pensions are taken into account.

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Mining Minister, Byron Chan

Mining Minister Byron Chan says the alluvial (small-scale, open pit) sector will earn export revenue in 2014 of close to K400 million and production may exceed 110,000 ounces of gold.

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The Supreme Court has allowed former Treasurer Don Polye to serve court documents to the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in Australia in his challenge on the Government’s decision to acquire a K3 billion UBS loan.

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Public Enterprises and State Investment Minister Ben Micah has called on employees of the PNG Power to support the management and the board on the company’s proposed semi-privatisation exercise.

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Illegal pharmaceutical activities in the country are on the rise, posing a risk to people’s lives, and generating ‘huge profits’, according to a Health Department inspector, Wauwa Legu.

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The leader of a trade delegation from Fuzhou City in China, Chen An Sheng, says he will return to PNG with industry partners to discuss investment opportunities in nickel, cobalt and iron sands projects with the PNG Government.

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President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama will create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in the south-central Pacific Ocean later this week, to protect sea life from climate change.

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Nauru‘s finance minister says the country is out of money and services will soon start shutting down, including those for refugees.

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Almost a third of Australia’s largest companies are paying less than 10¢ in the dollar in corporate tax. A new report says in the 10 years to 2014, up to AUD$80 billion in tax was lost to the government, by companies that include 21st Century Fox, Singapore Telecom, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Sydney Airport Corp.

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The Australia Network. Credit: ABC

The Australia Network has gone off the air, after Australia’s Abbott government withdrew funding for the service earlier this year.

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Transparency Solomon Islands says the government has to explain how two Asian companies obtained licences to either prospect or mine for bauxite in Rennell and Bellona. It says some landowners have signed blank pieces of paper or they did not know understand the content of the documents.