Papua New Guinea’s Ok Tedi mine expected to start again in March, the US formally withdraws from fishing treaty, and unions call on government to honour superannuation commitments. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Treasury Secretary Dairi Vele says the OK Tedi Mine in Western Province is expected to resume operations in March, after suspending operations in August 2015 due to the drought.

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Sir Mekere Morauta

Former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, has begun legal proceedings in the Supreme Court seeking to have the Ok Tedi Tenth Supplemental Agreement Act 2013 declared unconstitutional and invalid. The Act allowed the State to expropriate PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd’s 63.4 percent shareholding in the Ok Tedi mine. It is separate to the cases between PNGSDP and the State currently before the courts in Singapore and PNG.

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The United States government has officially announced it is pulling out of the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, effective from 1 January, 2017. Last month, several US-flagged fishing companies said they could not or would not pay their portion of the US$17 million quarterly payment due January 1, 2016. The move  is likely to hurt budgets of Pacific island countries involved, which had benefited from the annual payment of over US$80 million from the US government and industry.

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The Council of Public Sector Unions has called on the Government to meet its moral and legal obligations after Nambawan Super’s decision to put on hold payment of the unpaid employer contributions for public servants exiting employment.

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Trade Minister Richard Maru says a memorandum of understanding to be signed soon by the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority and the PNG Customs Service to ease two-way trade, and that the double taxation treaty, signed in April 1998, will be reviewed so PNG companies doing business in Fiji will pay tax in PNG.

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Agriculture Minister, Tommy Tomscoll. Credit: PNG Loop

Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll is refusing to budge from his decision to allow only one company—Port Moresby-based Gryph Holdings—to import fresh vegetables from Australia, which the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) says has created a monopoly.

The ICCC says major supermarkets are still waiting for a response to their applications to import and that in the meantime, prices of some vegetables were now higher than even before the ban.

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Australian National University agricultural researchers report food and water remain very scarce for rural villagers in high-altitude locations; many remote locations in inland Western Province; and inland Gulf Province near the border of Eastern Highlands and Morobe Province. Despite recent rains, they say carbohydrate staples, including sweet potato and banana, are scarce for villagers in many other locations as they wait for newly planted food crops to mature.

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The Independent Consumer and Competition Commissioner has called on business to pass on fuel cost reductions. Commissioner Paulus Ain says business has failed to pass on lower prices in the last 18 months, pointing out domestic fuel prices are down 43.9%.

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A 32-member delegation from the Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry is in the country to explore business opportunities, hosted by the Treasury Department and the Investment Promotion Authority. Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch invited the group when he attended the APEC meeting last September.

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An online registry that will make it easier for lenders in PNG to provide credit using moveable assets (such as vehicles or machinery) as collateral has been launched in Port Moresby. Lenders can secure their claim on assets that borrowers have pledged as collateral, and verify the same asset has not been pledged elsewhere. The Registry has been launched by the Department of Treasury with help from the Asian Development Bank. The Registry will go live in the coming days and will then appear on the Investment Promotion Authority website.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), viewed as a rival to the IMF, the World Bank, and the ADB. The AIIB is expected to lend US$10–$15 billion a year for the first five or six years and will start operations in the second quarter of 2016.

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