Bougainville’s Independence Referendum deferral, Papua New Guinea ranked 109 out of 190 in the World Bank’s 2019 Ease of Doing Business Report and possible changes to the Foreign Investment Regulatory Bill. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Bougainville’s Independence Referendum has been deferred by four months. Bertie Ahern, who chairs the referendum commission, has revealed that the June 15 deadline was ‘impossible’ given the lack of funds for voter registration.

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Bougainville President John Momis reportedly said: “The referendum on Bougainville’s long-term political future will be held on 17 October 2019.” (Reuters)

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Papua New Guinea has ranked 108 out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s 2019 Ease of Doing Business Report. Last year, PNG ranked 109 out of 190. The slight improvement was to due to reforms in taxes and starting a business processes; however, the country still ranks below the regional average of the East-Asia and Pacific Region. (The National)

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The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Wera Mori, has told the business community in PNG about potential changes aimed at amending Section 27 of the Foreign Investment Regulatory Bill. According to Mori, when the bill was introduced, it did not consider certain factors, such as reserving all investment below K10 million for PNG citizens or ‘national enterprises’ (enterprises more than 50 per cent PNG-owned).

‘You just can’t do a threshold and confine it to K10 million because you will shut the door on everybody and they will all disappear.

‘We have got to create an environment where there will be ease of doing businesses.’ said Mori. (Post Courier)

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Following the announcement of NASFUND’s financial results for 2018, its Chairman Hulala Tokome reported that the company ‘made a profit after tax of K158.7 million’ and that a 3.5 per cent interest return would be credited to its members. (LOOP PNG)

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NiuPower’s new gas-fuelled power station is about 65 per cent complete and ‘is expected to save PNG Power Ltd K100 million annually,’ reports The National. The power station is expected to help to reduce the environmental impacts of power generation in Port Moresby. According to NiuPower’s Chief Executive Richard Robinson, the expectation is to ‘provide power to PNG Power Ltd on a commercial basis around the end on March this year’. (The National)

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As part of the National Transmission Network (NTN) project, PNG DataCo has finalised system 2 of the new Kumul Submarine Cable Network with the other end at Alotau. According to Paul Komboi, PNG Dataco’s Managing Director, the cable is being laid from Port Moresby to Madang via Alotau, Popondetta and Lae.

‘The NTN project started at the end of 2017. System 2 of phase one has been completed and System 1 and System 3 are expected to be completed in December,’ he is quoted as saying (The National)

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Prime Minister Peter O’ Neill has reportedly announced an upgrade to Hayfield airport in East Sepik Province and the construction of a new market in Maprik (LOOP PNG)

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The CEO of Bank South Pacific, Robert Fleming, has reportedly said that the bank’s loan book growth ‘has amounted to K1.321 billion’. (Post Courier)

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The Pacifika Women’s Network (PWN) has unveiled its business plan for the next five years. Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori, members of the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation (SMEC) and other business and government representatives joined Founder and PWN’s President, Ruth Undi, for the presentation. Undi, on behalf of PWN, received a K25,000 cheque from SMEC, which is part of a K50,000 commitment made during the opening of PWN last year. (The National)

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