Total public debt stands at K23.5 billion, review of gun licences for private security firms likely, and People’s Micro Bank to be commercialised later this year. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

Total public debt stands at K23.5 billion as at the end of 2017 representing 31.9 per cent of gross domestic product, according to the 2017 final budget outcome tabled in Parliament by Treasury Minister Charles Abel. The figure is an increase of K1.6 billion or 7.4 per cent over 2016 levels. He said the 2017 outcome showed total revenue and grants at K11.2 billion and total expenditure and net lending at K12.9 billion, adding: ‘This translates to a budget deficit of K1.7 billion or 2.3 per cent of GDP.’

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Police Minister Jelta Wong has indicated the government is likely to review firearm licences for private security firms in PNG, after a public shootout in a busy supermarket in Port Moresby last week involving two foreign security guards. Wong said police will now move in to confiscate all firearms owned by the security firm.

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The NDB’s Moses Liu.

The Managing Director of the National Development Bank, Moses Liu, has reportedly told employees that he expects the People’s Micro Bank Limited to be a fully fledged commercial bank this year. He also said a discussion on commercialising the NDB was ruled out in favour of commercialising the PMB.

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Bougainville Copper Ltd is seeking a judicial review of the Bougainville Government’s moratorium on mining at Panguna. A mining wardens meeting in December turned down BCL’s request for its exploration licence to be extended. Meanwhile, the Secretary for Bougainville Mineral and Energy Resources, Shadrach Himata, reportedly says a total of four mining exploration licences have been issued to date.

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Oil Search Managing Director Peter Botten has announced a $US302.1 million (K963.72 million) net profit for 2017. The company lifted revenue 17 per cent, despite flat production and a slight fall in sales volumes. Botten largely attributed the result to higher oil prices, with the average realised oil and condensate price up 24 per cent. LNG and gas prices rose 21 per cent. Cash flow levels also leapt 52 per cent, from $US555.1 million to US$843.6 million.

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Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL) and the Mineral Resources Development Company have partnered to build a US$70 million (K217 million) power plant in Port Moresby. KPHL Managing Director Wapu Sonk reportedly says it will be built over the next six months and supply 45 to 50 megawatts into the Port Moresby grid. He said KPHL’s first JV company, NiuPower, a 50-50 partnership with Oil Search, is still under construction.

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The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission is to resume an investigation into the proposed merger of Telikom and PNG DataCo.

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Trukai Industries is on target to deliver PNG’s largest rice crop in history, a total of 200 hectares, in May. CEO Greg Worthington-Eyre says the company aims to produce 2000 hectares of rice within five years.

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PNG health authorities say they’ve finally managed to stop the spread of a ‘superbug’ on Daru Island, in Western Province. A drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak on the Island has been causing international alarm since it was first noticed a decade ago.

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The Post Courier reports that Tolukuma Gold Mines Ltd has been placed into liquidation by the National Court for non-payment of bills totalling US$233,844. Liquidator Andrew Pini, of Pini Accountants and Advisors, says he will make an assessment of the real debt figure and has asked creditors to lodge their claims. Singapore-based Asidokona Mining Resources, a private company, bought the Tolukuma gold mine in Central Province for K81.35 million to recapitalise and eventually restart it. They took over from Petromin in 2015.

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Example of drone medical delivery. Credit: dronelife

Global technology and services supplier, Bosch, has agreed to back a trial project using drones to deliver medical supplies to rural villages in the Highlands of PNG. Project Yonah is led by students from the National University of Singapore, who were concerned at the long delivery times of vaccines to remote villages.

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Ten of 60 missing SABL [special  agriculture business leases] files have been found. They reportedly ‘disappeared’ from the Department of Lands archives sections. Four files were found in the office of the former secretary.

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Credit Corporation has acquired 100 per cent of the shares in the regional investment management company, Pacwealth Capital Ltd.

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SP Brewery’s Corporate Relations Manager, John Nilkare, says PNG’s first cassava flour processing plant is scheduled for full operations in August following a groundbreaking ceremony at Erap in Morobe Province.

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Photograph of the week

PNG’s Rural Airstrip Agency has delivered more than 500 airstrip cone markers to rural airports in the last year, to help pilots of small planes when landing and taking off. The cones are an essential visual aid on the usually unpaved airstrips, a number of which are located on mountainous terrain. Credit: RAA.
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