Papua New Guinea’s state-owned enterprises given pep-talk by Minister, new Credit Guarantee Corporation to be established and Ramu NiCo sales fall. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.
Public Enterprise and state investment minister William Duma has told all bosses of State-owned enterprises to ‘lift the level of performances’.
‘Our SOEs although enjoying monopoly in most cases, have been performing at standards that cannot be tolerated by our people anymore, and embarrassing when measured against countries in the region,’ he said. (Post-Courier)
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The Government has written to Bank of PNG this week advising it to incorporate the Credit Guarantee Corporation and establish its board and structure. National Planning Minister Richard Maru told media the Bank of PNG would provide K50 million and the government would provide K20 million this year as equity in the name of Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH) to support the launch of the company, which would support people getting into business. (The National)
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Ramu NiCo Chairman Zong Shaoxing said last year the company sold 25,525 tonnes of nickel and 2,388 tonnes of cobalt, which were only 75.05 per cent and 72.06 per cent of the annual plan of sales, leaving 11,704 tons of nickel unsold. He said the main reason is that a large number of customers have requested to cancel or reduce orders due to worldwide economic downturn and nickel and cobalt price plummet. (Post-Courier)
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Oil Search has announced December quarter revenue of US$503.1 million, 6% higher than in the previous quarter.
‘Despite the first half of 2018 being one of the most challenging in Oil Search’s history due to the devastating PNG Highlands earthquake in February, the company has recovered well,’ said CEO Peter Botten in a statement. ‘We delivered total production for the year of 25.2 mmboe and sales revenue of US$1.54 billion, 6% higher than in 2017, and finished 2018 in a strong financial position with liquidity of US$1.5 billion.’
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Stakeholders in the PNG LNG project are in discussions with export credit agencies and commercial banks for up to US$9.8bn (K32 billion) of debt to fund the next phase of the project, in what will be the region’s biggest project financing since 2010. (Reuters)
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Bank South Pacific will undertake its largest-ever project in 20 years across the country and the Pacific with a banking system upgrade, according Chief Executive Officer Robin Fleming. The project will take two years to complete. (The National)
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Nautilus Minerals and Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd. have agreed to extend the maturity date of the existing secured loan facility which is currently due on January 8, 2019, for 30 days ending on February 8, 2019. Deep Sea Mining Finance this month loaned Nautilus US$500,000 to meet its short term funding obligations.
Nautilus shares are currently trading at around CAN$0.05, down from CAN$0.355 eleven months ago.
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The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) this removed ‘millions of kina’ worth of counterfeit, expired and non-English labelled products in shops in Kokopo. (The National)
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Kikori MP and Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion Soroi Eoe has announced the Ihu Special Economic Zone (ISEZ) project in Gulf Province, which will consist of a free trade zone, petroleum park, industrial zone, technology park, government and admin zone and other facilities to support the new Papua LNG project. (Post-Courier)
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Managing Director of the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority Jerry Agus this week thanked the National Government for providing the largest development budget since Independence for tourism in 2019, saying the TPA would do its utmost best to deliver on the Government’s tourism sector development agenda. (Post-Courier)
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Health Minister Sir Puka Temu has admitted that the system to procure, supply and distribute medical supplies is weak. (Post-Courier)
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