Retail and manufacturing sales down in Papua New Guinea

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Papua New Guinea’s retailers and manufacturers alike reporting significant drops in revenue this year. How serious is the downturn?

Interview: James Lau, Managing Director, Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group.

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The Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group optimistic MD, James Lau, tells Business Advantage why the group is expanding its horizons.

Spotlight: Focus on palm oil

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Palm oil production has the potential to play a major role in economic development of Papua New Guinea. Industry development now underway in PNG shows that the returns on investment for local communities involved in palm oil plantations or smallholder systems can be high. This is particularly important for PNG, where over 80% of the […]

Sector profile: Forestry

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Papua New Guinea’s forestry sector has bounced back from the 2008/9 slump, and is looking to value-adding, together with sustainability and traceability practices, for its growth. Papua New Guinea has immense forestry operations, with some 29 forest concessions covering 3.5 million hectares. Eight-four percent of PNG’s landmass is covered by forest, and 5.7 million hectares […]

Perspectives on Papua New Guinea

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Business leaders provide their own take on opportunities in PNG’s economy. Greg Pawson, General Manager Pacific Banking, Westpac ‘Papua New Guinea is a very important market for us. We employ more than 400 staff across our PNG business. We have sixteen branches and we’re expanding, with new business centres in Lae and Port Moresby. We’re about to relocate our main […]

Forestry: Making more from a sustainable resource

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Papua New Guinea’s forestry sector contributes 4% of the country’s GDP, with significant room to grow as it responds to the rising demand for sustainable and traceable forest products. While most of its income is from the export of round logs, PNG also produces furniture, plywood, prefabricated buildings and other forest products for domestic and export […]

Interview: James Lau, Rimbunan Hijau PNG

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Rimbunan Hijau PNG (R H) is Papua New Guinea’s largest forestry business, accounting for about 45% of the country’s timber exports. Business Advantage spoke with Managing Director James Lau about his company’s strategy for growth and the sector’s future. As PNG’s largest forestry operator, what is the strategy for your forestry division going forward? R […]

Papua New Guinea looks north for investors

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PNG’s current economic upturn has involved a notable increase in foreign direct investment from Asia. Most prominently, the Ramu Nickel project represents China’s first major investment in PNG, but there has also been major investment in forestry, fisheries and retail. Malaysia for one has a range of substantial interests in sectors ranging from agribusiness and […]