Prime Minister says funding details of Highlands Highway upgrade yet to be finalised, parliament considering outlawing roadblocks, and Telikom replaces CDMA network. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill reportedly says details of an agreement with the Asian Development Bank to upgrade the Highlands Highway to international standards are still being worked out. Trucking companies which use the Highway have told EMTV they are struggling to make a profit, because already high maintenance costs are rising and local landowners demand compensation. Trans Wonderland Operations Manager, Simon Pariakua, says the Government must not only upgrade the Highway but maintain it.

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A trench dug by villagers across the road at Ipae Corner, Aiyak, in Laiagam. Credit: PNG Police via RNZI

Parliament is expected to consider new laws that make it a criminal offence to mount a roadblock, reports RNZI. One anonymous landowner said that roadblocks are sometimes the only form of leverage that grassroots communities have with provincial and national governments which, it is claimed, fail to deliver promised development packages.

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Telikom PNG has launched its 4G network, replacing the current CDMA network that Citifon customers use. Telikom’s CEO, Michael Donnelly, says more than K500 million has been spent on this service to enable higher speeds and a more reliable service.

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Internet costs are expected to fall as a new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is established in Port Moresby. NICTA CEO, Charles Punaha, says Digitec and Datec have already joined up and Telikom and Digicel have said they will also join up, according The National. He expects all 15 ISPs to follow suit.

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PNG’s 2017 National Election ballot papers will be printed in Indonesia, reports the Post-Courier, because of apparent security concerns at Government Printing Office facilities. Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato says the Pura Group has been awarded the K6.6 million contract through a PNG partner company Treid Pacific. More than 4000 candidates may vie for the 111 parliamentary seats.

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Sir Henry Chow. Credit: Malum Nalu

Prominent businessman and founder of the Lae Biscuit Company, Sir Henry Chow, has died, aged 84. Sir Henry was born and educated in Rabaul, East New Britain Province. He started Toboi Shipbuilding Company with eight employees in 1958, after training as a boat builder after WWII in Australia.

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Kina Bank is refurbishing its Port Moresby Esi-loan service office at Vision City Mall so it can offer full banking services including an ATM, and teller services for retail banking. Staff numbers will expand from six to between eight and 12.

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The Director of the National Research Institute, Dr Charles Yala, says  the remote location of businesses, the difficulty in leasing or buying land and the difficulty in dealing with banks are obstacles affecting the performance of small and medium enterprises.

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Post PNG has been given the green light to set its own prices for postal stamps and letter boxes for the next five years, according to Independent Consumer and Competition Commission Commissioner, Paulus Ain.

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A Vietnamese fishing boat in flames after the Indonesian military blew it up for fishing illegally. Credit: AFP

Blowing up, burning and sinking so-called Vietnamese “blue boats” for illegally fishing in some Pacific countries and Indonesia is not enough of a deterrent, Pacific fisheries adviser Francisco Blaha reportedly says. He’s called for economic sanctions on Vietnam, placing tariffs on its seafood exports or getting the EU to issue it with one of its yellow cards, reports RNZI. 

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Solomon Islands has been awarded a US$15 million concessional loan, for its Tina River Hydro Project, a 20 megawatt hydro facility which will provide access to renewable energy for more than 100,000 people in and around the capital Honiara.

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And finally, the world’s first floating city could be built off the waters of French Polynesia after the signing of an agreement for a pilot project. The San Francisco-based Seasteading Institute’s Executive Director, Randolph Hencken, says the vision for sustainable, floating islands and innovative islands may be part of the solution to rising sea levels.