Ok Tedi’s cashflow plus new loan to ease foreign exchange situation, feasibility study to look at water pipeline from Highlands to Queensland, and illegal fishing in Pacific costs US$660 million a year. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The restart of the Ok Tedi mine and a US$300 million (K940.4 million) loan facility from the IMF for commercial banks will ease the strangling foreign exchange situation in PNG from the end of April, according to Bank South Pacific’s Chief Executive Officer, Robin Fleming. He says Ok Tedi brings in up to US$30 million to US$40 million (K94 million to K125.4 million) a month. Its shutdown last August until earlier this month meant more than US$360 to US$400 million (K1128.5 million to K1253.9 million) was absent from the market.

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BSP CEO, Robin Fleming also says the bank intends to dual list on another stock exchange, but has not said in which country, or when.

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Operations at the Ok Tedi copper mine have recommenced in all areas of the mine other than the Centre Pit, where a worker died last week. The company says it has now recovered the body of the worker.

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PNG’s first Prime Minister, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, has announced he is retiring from politics at the next election. The 80-year old MP for East Sepik says he has completed his task and it is time for a new generation to carry on.

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The National Executive Council (NEC) has approved K20 million for a feasibility study into exporting fresh water from the Highlands via a 1500 km pipeline to Queensland, Australia. It has endorsed the incorporation of a company, Mt Giluwe Water Ltd, to oversee the operation of the project in PNG. It is also proposed to build up to 10 hydro power stations along the PNG side of the pipeline, with each to generate 100 megawatts of electricity.

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BSP’s Robin Fleming

Reappointed PNG Power Ltd Executive Director John Mangos has been allegedly arrested for the second time by the police fraud squad shortly after arriving from Australia on Monday. Meanwhile, the chair of PNG Power, Andrew Ogil says CEO John Tangit has been suspended for 14 days. He says Tangit has been given two weeks to respond to the charges which relate to the K10 million power project in Angoram, East Sepik Province.

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Fund manager, Melanesian Trustee Services, reports its Pacific Balanced Fund now has a gross asset value of K600 million, double its 2010 value.

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Nasfund has announced it will introduce electronic banking services for its members this year. It will include a transactional account that will be linked to a debit card.

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The CIC’s Rose Romalus

A new grading system for green coffee beans will see smallholder growers get the same price for their produce based on the cupping (tasting) quality, according to the Coffee Industry Corporation’s Senior Quality Officer Rose Romalus. She says the revised green bean standard is good news for some two million plus smallholder growers, who account for 85 per cent of coffee produced each year.

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New Britain Palm Oil has opened a new office in the PWC Haus/Harbour City building in Port Moresby.

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Westpac Bank has extended its phone banking services to the bmobile-vodafone network. And Click TV subscribers in Port Moresby will now be able to pay their monthly bills using bmobile-vodafone credits.

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The executive chair of the Fiji Sugar Corporation, Abdul Khan, says Cyclone Winston will cost the industry in Fiji about US$60 million (K184 million).

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Nothern bluefin tuna swim in the Pacific Ocean. Photograph: Alamy

And finally, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is costing Pacific nations US$616 million (K1.89 billion) each year, according to the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency’s Director General, James T. Movick. He says that represents 12 per cent of the region’s total annual catch.