Puma Energy head asks for help with foreign exchange to avoid fuel shortages, new World Bank report calls for reforms in PNG, Harbourside South development nears completion. Your business news in brief.

Harbourside South. Credit: Steamships

Mining and energy

The shortage of fuel in PNG could become serious if Puma Energy is unable to have foreign exchange (FX) to pay its suppliers, according to Puma Energy PNG’s Chairman and Managing Director, Hulala Tokome.

Tokome said fuel rationing was the last resort which he hoped to avoid.

‘When we don’t have the FX to buy the new fuel, we then need to extend the availability of whatever we have left until we have the FX to buy more,’ he said. (The National)

Property

With retail and office floors within Steamships’ Harbourside South Development now complete, the project has received a Certificate of Permissive Occupancy, which allows full operations for this portion of the building to proceed.

Meanwhile, Pacific Palms Property, the entity responsible for managing the project, is focused on completing the fit out of the 88 Marriott Executive Apartments, which will open in November 2023, featuring with a club floor which boasts gyms, pools, yoga and dance studios, a spa, lounge, and restaurant. (Steamships)

Biosecurity

The National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority has launched its 10-year Biosecurity Policy, 2022-2032, the first for the authority.

NAQIA Managing Director, Joel Alu, said the policy is a launching pad to mobilise and introduce laws to protect agriculture commodities for international trade. (Post-Courier).

Economy

A new Country Economic Memorandum from the World Bank calls for ‘a renewed policy focus on boosting economic growth, by addressing PNG’s excessive macroeconomic volatility, low productivity growth, and high reliance on natural capital as opposed to human and physical capital.’

‘Unless PNG makes significant policy changes before the implementation of new extractives projects, these projects will not yield higher, more stable, or more inclusive growth,’ it also warns. (World Bank).

Finance