A possible rice deal with the Philippines; developments in gas sales; and landowner issues. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Philippines to engage in local rice production. The move is aimed at reducing the cost of rice in PNG.

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The Papua New Guinea Government will market its own gas apart from the developer when the Papua LNG project starts, according to a report. PNG’s oil and gas company Kumul Holdings, as a partner with Total SA, has come up with an agreement to have KPH staff undergo training with Total SA in Paris on marketing gas to buyers.

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A landowner representative in the Hides area of Papua New Guinea’s Hela Province reportedly says there are many people in the area claiming to be landowners when that’s not the case. Andy Hamaga was speaking amid ongoing criticism of the government’s failure to pay royalties to landowners for the huge ExxonMobil-led liquefied natural gas project.

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Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has reportedly called for reforms in the United Nations Security Council to make it ‘more relevant and responsive’ to security challenges facing the world. Speaking at the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) in Japan last week he said that the United Nations system had flaws which should be rectified.

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The Russian ship Erekop visited Port Moresby in May.

The visit of the Russian naval ship to the country for the first time is a boost in PNG as tourism hub despite all the negative publicity overseas, NCD Governor Powes Parkop says. Parkop said the visit by the Russian navy officers in their warship was historic, and conveyed his warm welcome to them.

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The level of gross foreign exchange reserves at the end of December 2017 was K5.4 billion, which was sufficient to cover 5.9 months of total and 9.7 months of non-mineral imports. This is according to Bank of Papua New Guinea’s December quarter economic bulletin released last Thursday.

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Harvested logs in PNG. Source: RNZI/Johnny Blades

The subsidiary of a major Malaysian company has reportedly agreed in mediation talks to renegotiate land deals in Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain. Gilford Ltd, which is wholly owned by Rimbunan Hijau, has been in negotiation with landowners over the Sigite Mukus project, with the assistance of the Catholic Archdiocese.

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The merger of State telecommunications companies Telikom PNG (TPNG), Bmobile-Vodafone and Dataco is set to be fully completed by mid-2019 under the new Kumul Telikom Holdings (KTH). Chairman of KTH Andrew Johnson reportedly gave the status update of what he described was an evolutionary merger of peer companies rather than a takeover as assumed by some.

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Students taking up business studies at Divine Word University in Madang have been urged by an extractive company to work in a multi-cultural environment. Third-year business management students’ class captain Mohe Denema reportedly said the visit to Ramu NiCo’s operational base in Madang Town was an opportunity and challenge for them as future managers.

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Photograph of the week

A community in Morobe is constructing a traditional Kasali (canoe) to accompany a Sorong contemporary music troupe from West Papua—on a voyage to attend the Kenu and Kundu Festival in Alotau then to the APEC meeting in Port Moresby. Source: The National