Credit Corp profit down, companies begin closing offshore foreign currency accounts, and new air navigation system to be installed across Papua New Guinea. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Credit Corporation Ltd. has reported a net profit of K24.52 million for the 2014 financial year, a drop of 3 per cent on the previous year. CEO Robert Allport attributed the fall in profit to the completion of the PNG LNG project construction phase.

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The Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea says some companies have complied with its Foreign Exchange Control Directive and closed some of their unauthorised offshore foreign currency accounts. In his March 2015 Quarterly Economic Bulletin, Loi Bakani says foreign exchange levels fell to K5.6 million ($US2.1 million) in June, from K5.7 million ($US2.1 million) at the end of March, but that this level is sufficient.

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Air Services’ Captain Ted Paki and Australian High Commissioner, Deborah Stokes

A new Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) will be installed 
31 airports and airstrips across PNG over the next 18 months. The CEO of PNG Air Services, Captain Ted Pakii, says GNSS will improve aviation safety, reduce maintenance costs of land based navigational aids and reduce fuel costs, through fewer holding patterns and diversions. The Australian government is funding the K8.1 million system.

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The minimum wage rate increases this week by 16 toea to K3.36 per hour. The minimum wage will rise by a further 14 toea to K3.50 next year. More 80,000 workers in the wholesale retail business and hotel industry will benefit, although there are exemptions available for businesses in the agricultural sector.

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Mining Minister Byron Chan says he is confident Nautilus Minerals will soon begin mining undersea copper and gold in the Bismarck Sea. Chan visited the site where Nautilus’ mining tools are manufactured and assembled.

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Kina Asset Management Limited has reported a net loss after tax of K0.39 million for the year ended December 2014, compared with the net profit of K8.19 million reported for the previous year. According to the company’s annual report, the loss was ‘mainly due to valuation losses and foreign exchange pegging’.

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PNG’s first Airbnb listing has opened in Tufi village, Northern Province. Nearby Tufi Resort manages the listing for the villagers, who offer outdoor activities and ‘living like a local’. A one-night stay is required at Tufi Resort due to travel times/airline schedules.

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Landowners have protested inside the PNG LNG project’s Hides gas conditioning plant site. A spokesman says landowners are frustrated over failed commitments and outstanding payments in royalties and other benefits.

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Digicel’s Denis O’Brien. Credit: Irish Times

Papua New Guinea’s new Chancery in the Solomon Islands  was officially opened by PM Peter O’Neill last week, while he was in Honaira for the Melanesian Spearhead Group Leaders meeting.

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Digicel will be floated on the New York Stock Exchange later this year, according to its Irish owner, Denis O’Brien. Documents lodged with the US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, show O’Brien receives an annual income of $US 40 million a year.

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Log exports reached a peak in 2014, according to Paul Barker, Director of the Institute of National Affairs. He says 3.8 million cubic metres was shipped to China alone. The largest single project was R H Groups’s Sigite Mukus in East New Britain.

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Beekeepers say they don’t have enough honey to supply huge demand for PNG honey overseas. President of the Farmers and Settlers Association, Wilson Thompson says between 1970 and 1990 PNG had been able to produce over 150 tonnes. It now produces between 27 and 40 tonnes.

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A recent Link PNG flight PX900/901 from Port Moresby to Tabubil and back will go down in history as the first time an all-PNG, all-female flight crew has flown a scheduled commercial service in PNG.

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The Australian government will partner with private companies such as Coca-Cola to distribute medical aid, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has told a Liberal Party meeting. Bishop said the move toward private sector networks was part of a focus on the ‘economic security for the recipients of our aid’.

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Air Niugini has made its first flight to Port Vila in Vanuatu, bringing its international destinations to 11. In the Pacific, it already flies to Solomon Islands and Fiji.

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The Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Deborah Stokes, has told 32 graduands from the SMEC Garment and Textile Training Centre that less than two percent of PNG’s population hold a vocational or technical certificate.

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The Chief Executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement is urging members to plan for tuna revenue declines. Transform Aqorau says member countries can’t be complacent about the current surge in fisheries revenue, and they need to prepare for future downturns in revenue, to avoid shocks to government finances and services dependent on the new source of funds.

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The first ever Pacific Community Agritourism Week attracted about 200 attendees from the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean in Nadi, Fiji, this week. The promotion aims to close the gap between what farmers are supplying and what the tourism operators want to buy.

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The Tongan king’s inauguration. Credit: Twitter Proudtongans

And finally, Tonga has begun 11 days of celebrations to mark the coronation of monarch King Tupou VI with an ancient kava ceremony and gifts of pigs and yams from the country’s chiefs. King Tupou VI, a 55-year-old former diplomat whose full name is ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho Tupou, succeeds his brother King George Tupou V, who died in 2012.