Ban on imported vegetables suspended for three months,  Mainland CEO calls for tougher bio-security measures, and Oil Search confident despite low oil prices. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The government has suspended its ban on importing fresh vegetables for three months, after admitting the ban, imposed last August, had raised prices following shortages. The government will now allow imports from Australia, New Zealand, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll relaxed the ban on November 11, allowing only Gryph Holdings Ltd, a newly established entity with no experience in the business, to do so. The decision angered major supermarkets, business chambers and consumers. Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce CEO David Conn has welcomed the prime minister’s commitment to consultation on the ban during the next three months.

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The CEO of the country’s biggest poultry producer, Mainland’s David Alcock, says the lifting of the ban on imported poultry poses bio-security threats to the local poultry industry. He wants bio-security policies in line with international standards and the policies enforced by countries such as New Zealand.

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Oil Search’s Peter Botten

Oil Search Managing Director, Peter Botten, has told the ASX that despite low oil prices, the PNG LNG Project co-venturers ‘remain committed to pursuing PNG LNG Project expansion activities, as maximising production through the existing trains and the construction of a potential third train continues to offer attractive returns’. Botten is reported as actively prioritising further cost cuts across the business. Details will be released when the company announces full year results on February 23.

The operator of PNG’s second LNG plant, French company Total, says the second planned extended well test has commenced at Antelope-5. Partner InterOil says the test delivered around 50 million standard cubic feet per day for around two weeks before being shut-in to record the subsequent pressure build-up.

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Treasury Secretary Dairi Vele says the proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund will begin operating this year.

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New Tourism Minister, Justin Tkatchencko, says Air Niugini needs to lower airfares to make the country more attractive to foreign tourists. He says his ministry will spend US$1.5 million promoting tourism to Milne Bay and East New Britain provinces.

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New Zealand is financing a K7.4 million expansion of electricity grids in Bougainville, West New Britain and Northern provinces. The projects involve rehabilitating hydropower plants.

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PNG Lands Board chairman, Sam Wange, says his board met only once in 2014 and in 2015, blaming ‘bureaucratic blunders and inefficiencies’ by Lands and Physical Planning officers. He said issues pending for the board included people and businesses still squatting on State land with expired land titles; outstanding and fresh applications; and more.

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Lae-based Internet Service Provider, Seeto Kui’s MyNet, will roll out a citywide WiFi distribution in Lae, using an O3b low-latency satellite. No date has been given for the start.

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New Caledonia may face problems trying to sell its nickel ore to new markets. New Caledonia has an exclusive deal to ship its nickel ore to the Yabulu refinery near Townsville. But the company that runs the refinery, Queensland Nickel, owned by billionaire Clive Palmer, has gone into administration, owing creditors A$70 million.

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Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands are among 15 countries found to be in arrears in paying their annual contribution to the UN‘s regular budget, which means they can’t vote in the 193-member world body unless there are exceptional circumstances.

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A Yoga Unites PNG group in action

and finally, a growing grassroots yoga campaign in Papua New Guinea says its practice is changing lives, including those of hardened criminals. The Yoga Unites PNG group holds classes in Bomana prison for its young inmates, as well as sessions with those living in the 8 Mile squatters’ settlement in Port Moresby. Even NCD Governor Parkop is involved, after a frightening prognosis by his doctor drove him to walking, and then yoga, where he has experienced the benefits first hand.