BSP enters a joint venture deal in Cambodia, management restructure planned for PNG Power, and government shelves GST rise. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Bank South Pacific is expanding into Cambodia, according to Group Chairman Sir Kostas Constaninou. The bank has entered into a joint venture buying 50 per cent of asset finance business, RMA Finance, which will be rebranded to BSP Finance Cambodia Propriety Limited. Sir Kostas said the move to Asia is part of the bank’s strategy as it looks to further grow its business.

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KCH’s Thomas Abe

Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) is preparing to install a new management team at PNG Power Limited (PPL). KCH Acting Managing Director Thomas Abe told The National a number of key management team members had left in the past two years. The PPL managing director position and four other executive management positions are now being advertised.

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The Government is shelving a recommendation by the Taxation Review Committee to increase the Goods and Service Tax by 5 per cent because it will adversely impact low-income earners. Quoting Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on talkback radio, The National says the government will instead target companies which have been registered with the Investment Promotion Authority but have not been paying taxes.

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Staff at Digicel PNG have been offered a voluntary redundancy package as the company reduces its global workforce by about 25 per cent over the next 18 months, according to Jamaica-based Head of Group Public Relations, Antonia Graham. She would not give The Post Courier any numbers on PNG job losses. The Irish Times reports Digicel is carrying debt of over US$6 billion.

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The Bougainville government says it is taking the National Government to the Supreme Court over the non-payment of funds to the autonomous region. Vice President Raymond Masono told RNZI his government believes it was owed about US$250 million (K795 million) by Port Moresby under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement.

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ExxonMobil’s Andrew Barry

ExxonMobil will be investing K150 million to upgrade two sections of the Highlands Highway over the next three years, following an agreement with the National Government. Managing Director, Andrew Barry, says the sections to be upgraded include Hanumbu Junction to Goli, then Goli to Komo.

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Business Advantage International is excited to announce a partnership with the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PNGCCI) to promote international investment in PNG. The PNG Chamber has been announced as an Event Partner of the Papua New Guinea Investment Conference, which will take place in Sydney, Australia, on 7 and 8 September this year.

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The Bank of PNG and an Australian aid contractor are looking at how Blockchain could dramatically improve PNG’s low rate of financial inclusion, reports the ABC. The Australian Government has allocated $200,000 to help the Bank of PNG investigate the possible applications of Blockchain technology.

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Bougainville’s Manetai Limestone mine project will reopen and begin production early next year. Awora Incorporated Land Group, Chairman Simon Akapitus, says it follows seven years of negotiations. Manetai Limestone closed down before the Bougainville crisis in 1989.

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The NFA’s John Kasu

The National Fisheries Authority’s Managing Director John Kasu has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam to facilitate more co-operation on issues like illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

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Papua New Guinea exported 41,000 tonnes of cocoa last year, a 20 per cent increase on 2015, according to the Cocoa Board’s Economics Manager, Claire Parik. She said Malaysia bought 44 per cent of total exports, the United States 31 per cent, Singapore 13 per cent, Belgium nine per cent, and Indonesia and Germany each bought one per cent.

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The Lae Chamber of Commerce is warning illegal poultry imports pose a severe health threat to the industry. In his weekly newsletter, President Alan McLay says more than 90 per cent of the country’s commercial poultry products are produced in Morobe.

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One of the three Duffy cafés in Port Moresby.

Entrepreneur Travers Chue, founder of Port Moresby’s highly successful café chain Duffy, says he is will expand into China later this year. He told the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council forum it was always the intention to expand into China when he set up the business five years ago.

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The K600 million Edevu Hydro Power project outside Port Moresby is expected to be completed by the end of  2019, according to the developer, PNG Hydro Development. It has reported the completion of a 500-metre underground diversion tunnel which will be temporarily used to divert the natural course of water to allow for the construction of the project’s dam.