Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Petroleum suggests there could be changes to the Papua LNG agreement, Prime Minister James Marape visit to Australia, and Revised Mining Act to be tabled in Parliament. Your weekly digest of business news.

Last week, Kerenga Kua, PNG’s Minister for Petroleum, spoke to Reuters about the Total-led Papua LNG project. The previous O’Neill government signed a gas agreement for the project in April this year but Kua has said that ‘any signatory contract can, anytime after an agreement has been signed, go back to the negotiation table if there are, as an afterthought, unsatisfied with certain aspects of the terms and conditions of the contract.’

Kua also said: ‘We, as a government, have opted to re-look at the [Papua LNG] agreement because it was signed at a time when we were in the throes, or in the process of changing the government. It’s about weighing it between the nervousness of the investors and the pain and suffering of our own people.’

It’s expected that the review will run for a few more weeks. (Reuters)

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As part of his first visit to Australia as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape addressed the Lowy Institute in Sydney and said he welcomes Australia’s commitment to helping PNG develop infrastructure, but also remarked that: ‘I don’t envisage this type of aid donor-recipient relationship to last.’

He added: ‘We will move from an introduced culture of dependency and complacency, where we rely on overseas aid and inward investment alone, to one where we become a vibrant economic powerhouse and are totally economically independent by expansion and diversification of our economic base.’ (The Guardian).

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During the welcome ceremony of Mining Vice-Minister, Jimmy Uguro, the Secretary for the Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazards Management, Harry Kore, said that the revised Mining Act will be tabled in Parliament in the next sitting, which is scheduled for August 27. Work on the revised Mining Act started 10 years ago. The mining sector provides over 20,000 jobs to Papua New Guineans. (LOOP)

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Alan Milne, Managing Director of Air Niugini, has said that the company is trying to ‘put a fleet replacement plan in place.’ According to Milne, the company is ‘looking at every manufacturer at the moment’ to see what planes best suit Air Niugini. (The National)

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Ok Tedi Mine.

Repair work will begin shortly in the Tabubil–Kiunga Highway, which links the river port of Kiunga to Ok Tedi’s mining township of Tabulil. The project, which is expected to cost over K100 million, will be funded by Ok Tedi Mining Ltd through its Road Maintenance budget and the OTML Tax Credit Scheme. The project will take approximately three years to be completed. (LOOP PNG)

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Papua New Guinea has become the 160th state party to accede to the UN Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, commonly known as the New York Convention. The New York Convention is an instrument of international arbitration. (UNIS)

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Marape during his visit to Austal. Credit: EMTV

Last week, during his visit to Australia, Prime Minister James Marape toured Austal’s headquarters and ship-building facility. He suggested the company should come to PNG ‘to establish a facility, not only to cater for PNG’s needs, but to provide for other small Pacific Island nations in the region.’ Austal built the HMS Ted Diro, the first of four military patrol boats the Australian Government has donated to the Pacific nation. (EMTV)

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Business Link Pacific (BLP), an online platform that seeks to connect business advisers with small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Pacific, will launch during the first week of August in Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.’ (The National)

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The PNG Accident Investigation Commission (PNG AIC) has released its final report into Air Niugini Boeing 737 accident at Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia. PNG AIC Chief Commissioner, Hubert Namani, said in a statement: ‘The investigation observed that the flight crew disregarded the EGPWS (Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System) alerts and did not acknowledge the “minimums” and “100-feet” advisories or respond to the EGPWS aural alerts; a symptom of fixation and channelised attention.’  (AIC)

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During its General Annual Meeting, Rio Fiocco, President of the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce, suggested that the proposed Foreign Investment Bill (FIB) could ‘still be alive for the business community in the country’.

‘We are working in conjunction with the other chambers, warming hard to the government to look at changes to the proposed FIR bill,’ Fiocco reportedly said. ‘Last we were told is the Investment Promotion Authority Act was going to be amended in line with the recommendations that our various chambers have made, and there are details on the IPA website.’ (Post-Courier)

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Bougainville referendum has been delayed to late November. The referendum was supposed to take place in July but was delayed to mid-October. According to RNZ, all parties involved in the process have agreed to this move. ‘The Bougainville Referendum Commission felt that a lot of Bougainvilleans have not already enrolled in the common roll,’ said Bougainville’s Minister for Peace Agreement Implementation, Albert Punghau. ‘A lot of work needs to be done in preparation to making a credible roll so that when the people go to the polls they will find their names.’

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Photograph of the Week

Prime Ministers Marape and Morrison in Australia. Credit: PM James Marape via Facebook

Prime Minister James Marape shared this image on his Facebook page after his first visit to Australia since taking over from former PM Peter O’Neill . During his visit, Marape met Prime Minister Scott Morrison, visited Parliament House, addressed the Lowy Institute in Sydney and made it clear that PNG will negotiate international deals differently and declared the development of an independent commission against corruption among his priorities.