The contract for the purchase of Motukea Island for the relocation of Port Moresby wharf signed, confusion over Ok Tedi compensation payments, report says PNG state-owned enterprises under performing compared to Pacific counterparts. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The Deputy Chairman of PNG Ports, Job Suat, has signed the contract for purchase of the Port of Motukea from Curtain Bros, which will see the Port of Moresby main wharf relocated to Motukea. The chairman of the Independent Public Business Corp, Paul Nerau, says the relocation will cost about K1 billion by the time of the APEC summit in 2018.

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Compensation payments to tens of thousands of landowners affected by the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea, could be delayed due to uncertainty over who will pay the cost of getting the money to the people. In the past the PNG Sustainable Development Program paid these costs but since the government’s nationalisation of all the company’s PNG assets, PNGSDP no longer has the money.

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An Asian Development Bank report says state-owned enterprises (SOEs) operate under confused legislative and governance framework, with weak transparency and accountability. It says ‘SOEs in Fiji, Tonga, and Solomon Islands outperformed PNG’s SOEs in 2012’.

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Oil Search has earmarked up to half its future net profits for dividend payments. MD Peter Botten says the company has set a target dividend payout ratio of 35–50 per cent of net profits.

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The MD of ExxonMobil PNG, Peter Graham, says the PNG LNG Project has so far injected more than K2.7 billion (US$1.12 billion) into landowner companies. He also said revenue from the project is expected to flow into the government coffers in the later part of 2015 ‘only after completion of tests demonstrating to lenders that the Project is fully completed and operational’.

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PNG Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum.

The PNG Women’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called on the Trade Ministry to consider a separate policy to encourage women entrepreneurs in the small and medium-sized business sector. The chamber also wants banks and the microfinance sector involved in assessing the government’s Master Plan for SMEs.

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The Mineral Resources Authority says there is potential to develop coal mining and coal seam gas industries in PNG. It says exploratory work has been carried out in the Gulf, Western, Eastern Highlands, Simbu and Madang provinces and a policy is being prepared.

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Deputy Bank of Papua New Guinea Governor, Benny Popoitai, says the demand for access to financial knowledge and services in rural areas is growing, as he presented more than 7,200 certificates to participants who completed the financial education training last week in Enga.

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Australia’s Coca-Cola Amatil and its US partner the Coca-Cola Co are launching a new product this week, with analysts also expecting the release of a strategic review involving 100 job cuts and savings of at least A$100 million over the next three years.

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Canadian WCB Resources’s CEO Cameron Switzer says he is encouraged by an initial drilling program at the Misima Island gold-copper project in Milne Bay province.

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InterOil CEO, Michael Hession, has told investors in Singapore the Elk-Antelope gas field PNG’s largest undeveloped gas discovery, describing the Eastern Papuan Basin was an exciting emerging region.

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Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

The Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency’s deputy director general, Wez Norris, says 12 boats were found potentially in breach of their fishing licences after aircraft from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and France completed about 180 flying hours monitoring foreign fishing fleets in the Pacific.

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And finally, the world’s oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, may need to find a buyer to help plug a capital shortfall, after failing a stress test. The Siena-based bank needs €2.1bn despite being bailed out twice in the past five years.