The Papua LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) project is a step closer to its construction phase after the joint venture partners and the state announced that the project has moved on to the Front- End Engineering Design (FEED) phase. The Minister for Petroleum, Kerenga Kua, when speaking during the announcement on last night at the APEC in Port Moresby by Total Energies and the government, said this project will result in good economic growth for Papua New Guinea (PNG). The minister said that the people can look forward to substantial benefits for the country that will trickle down to the people. The Papua LNG is a joint venture partnership between Total Energies as the lead developer, ExxonMobil, and Santos. The Papua LNG project, instead of developing its one supply facilities, will be using the existing ones in the PNG LNG project, hence, the joint venture partnership. Minister Kua said that the partnership in this project has also opened opportunities for state owned enterprise Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) on behalf of the state to possibly build an electric LNG train within the PNG LNG processing plant facility in the Central province. The electric train will use electricity generated from green energy instead of gas in order to minimize carbon emissions. This the minister said is a special feature of the Papua LNG project. Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) James Marape and his senior ministerial team, after meeting with senior executives of Total Energies, were told that the Papua LNG was on schedule. The FEED stage of the project will now move to early preparatory work and as well as the Final Investment Decisions (FID), which should happen later this year or early next year. This should see the construction phase of the project start in 2024 and the first shipment of gas from the Papua LNG to start going out in 2027.

The two clubs that were involved in on-field violence during the finals of the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) competition last year, have been allowed to remain in the competition. Port Moresby AFL Association President Mr. Douglas Lai said the association decided against banning the Lamana Dockers and Gordons Kokofas. “We have decided to let it go for the sake of progress in the competition and I hope they have learnt their lessons and would do better this year,” said the president. The decision against the removal of the two clubs was reached during the association meeting held over the weekend. The association meeting also covered a couple of agendas including the scheduling of the AFL pre-season and welcoming the newcomers to the city competition. That new club is from PNG Power and will join the competition for this season, while the Port Power club from the Port Moresby Technical Collage, will be fielding a female’s team for the first time this season. This now brings the total number of clubs in the competition to 11 clubs for the men’s division and 7 clubs for the women’s division.

A vehicle database is in the process of being established to counter the ongoing traffic infringements committed by public transport operators in Port Moresby city. The National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Superintendent Silva Sika, said this is part of police efforts to address the continuous breaches of traffic laws on a daily basis in the capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG). He told Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) and taxi operators that this new database will keep a record of individuals who break the traffic rules. “If you are arrested for any particular case, you will be entered into that database and we will monitor you from there. We want to know who are the people who have become too stubborn.” He said the main focus here is the safety of the public and these new measures taken now by police and its stakeholders, should put back some guarantee of safety. Meanwhile, it has been a week now since the police, along with its stakeholders like the Road Traffic Authority (RTA) and the Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited (MVIL), commenced the crackdown of public transport operators defying the traffic rules. A look around the city today saw some buses still defying those rules like transporting passengers along unauthorized route for PMVs, double parking, not parking at the actual bus stops and stopping in the middle of road just to pick up passengers. These scenes show the continuous complete disregard portrayed by most of public transport operators, of the simplest traffic laws despite numerous calls from the authorities to them to abide by the law.

Moni Plus has once again come on board to support the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) competition for another season with a total of K30, 000 sponsorship as naming rights sponsors. Port Moresby AFL Association President Mr. Douglas Lai said this funding support has come from a total of K60, 000 Moni Plus sponsorship, from which another K30, 000 was given to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) AFL Commission for this season’s operations. “This is the third year now that Heduru Moni Plus has come on board to sponsor the AFL competition, they started sponsoring the competition back in 2021 and then in 2022 and now 2023, so I am happy to have them on board again.” Now that the association has received the funding support, a meeting has been called by the association president to be held tomorrow to discuss the 2023 season and the second Easter Cup challenge. “I would like to have all the club representatives present at this meeting, it will be held at the Aviat Club and the start time will be at 1pm in the afternoon.” Mr. Lai said this meeting is important because on the agenda is the Easter Cup challenge, which started just last year. So, the president said the meeting will also be to organize the challenge for its second year.

It is the 7th season of the Men of Honours Awards and PNG Air has once again come on board as a sponsor of the event, continuing its partnership with the Digicel PNG Foundation initiative for another year. The Chief Commercial Officer for PNG Air, Mr. Simon Pitt announced that the commercial airline company will remain a sponsor for the event going forward. “As a company we are proud to continue our partnership with Digicel PNG Foundation for a second year as the official carrier for the Men of Honours Awards. It is also perfect for our employees to see the work that they do every day being translated into helping address violence in the country and to feel a sense of pride to be part of a movement in addressing an important issue.” The support PNG Air provides includes return flights for three selected ambassadors, the regional judge with two crew members, and ticket prizes for the chosen ambassador. Digicel PNG Foundation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ms. Serena Sasingian was delighted to have PNG Air continue its support for another year as the official carrier of the Men of Honour Awards. This year, the Men of Honour Awards will be hosted in Port Moresby on the 18th of April.

The residents of the city of Port Moresby and the Central province are expecting power loadshedding this weekend because one of the gas- to- power plants just outside the PNG LNG plant site in the Central province, will be closed for a major upgrading work. According to PNG Power Limited, the Dirio gas power plant that supplements the power supply to Port Moresby, will be shut down on Saturday 04th of March at 7am and coming back online on Sunday 05th of March at 6pm. The shutdown is important because it will allow for the installation of the Statcom. The Statcom and other switchgears are part of the improvement plans to stabilize the grid and improve reliability on the network. PNG Power will be putting out a separate schedule for the power load shedding for both Port Moresby and Central province for the public to see.

Police in the nation’s capital Port Moresby are currently on the road cracking down on public transport operators who continue to defy the basic traffic road rules and, putting the lives of the public at risk. The National Capital District (NCD) Metropolitan Superintendent Silva Sika said the road rules are the laws of the land and as such, must not be broken. He said Public Motor Vehicles (PMV) and taxis commonly break road rules and most of the time they get away with it, but this won’t be the case from now on because breaches to vehicle registrations will be dealt with seriously, buses and taxis that are not roadworthy will be impounded and PMVs that disregard other road users, will face the full arm of the law. Mr. Sika informed public transport owners and operators this week that the police operation will involve its stakeholders like Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited (MVIL), Road Traffic Authority (RTA), and National Capital District Commission (NCDC). “My interest is to make sure that safety is guaranteed, my officers are going to move around in the city,” Sika told the public transport operators. “The rule of law must be upheld, no one must give an excuse here, you should know the law. I am challenging you here because you hold the life of a person in your hands when you are driving the PMV or taxi.” “You must respect the rule of law and other road users,” he further stressed. Mr. Sika said he understands that PMVs and taxis also need to make money to pay off loans and other financial obligations; therefore, he urged the operators and the owners to cooperate with police and its stakeholders to ensure buses and taxis are good to be on the road, and that basic road rules followed through. He also urged the PMV and taxi owners to talk to their drivers to obey the rule of law every time they are on the road making money from transporting the public because whenever a PMV or a taxi is booked by police or the Road Traffic Authority, then the owners stand to lose a lot from it when their vehicles are impounded, or the driver’s license suspended. When it comes to making money, Mr. Sika simply said that it is in the best interest of public transport operators and the owners to follow the rule of law. Meanwhile, police officers have been busy since Monday this week on the roads in Port Moresby and some have been seen pulling over PMVs and taxis that have broken traffic rules. This exercise will continue throughout the year. Mr. Sika concluded by saying that the government can do so much to try to change this country for the better, but it all comes back to the people to make the change a reality, and that starts with following the laws of the land.

Passengers traveling with Air Niugini into Mt. Hagen city will be transported on board the airline’s Dash 8 aircraft, instead of the jet aircrafts. This is because of the current runway repair works being carried out by the National Airports Corporation (NAC) at Kagamuga airport. The restriction will come into effect on Wednesday 08th March and will continue until the 30th of April when runway works are scheduled for completion. Once complete, these essential runway repair works will ensure the continued operation of Air Niugini’s larger jet aircraft into Mount Hagen. The airline company said the situation is beyond its control; however, the airline looks forward to resuming the Boeing 737 and Fokker jet services to Mount Hagen as soon as possible.  

The very recent fuel crisis that hit the country was a wakeup call for everyone involved in the fuel industry including the government, when the issue of the shortage of foreign exchange to purchase crude oil or finished products hit home. Speaking on behalf of one of the country’s fuel distributing companie- Puma Energy, the Country Manager and Director Mr. Hulala Tokome said the solution to this matter is a sustainable solution on the supply of foreign currency for the purchase of fuel and not just a government intervention from time to time whenever there is a dire need for it because of another fuel crisis. Tokoma said they need constant supply of foreign exchange to purchase crude oil and finished products like aviation fuel. “When we bring fuel into the country, we’re actually bringing fuel by paying in US dollars for crude or finished products. So, when we do sell it into the market, whether we sell it to a mining company or whether we sell it to a commercial customer or aviation customer or even to retail sites, we sell it in PNG Kina.” “So, in order to bring in finished products or crude, we need to pay in US dollars, that’s the particular issue we continue to face, having no access foreign currency.” Nevertheless, despite the challenges Puma Energy has faced in very recent times, the fuel distributor continues to improve its services to its customers. Today was testimony to that, when the refurbished Manu Auto- Port Puma service station in Port Moresby was re-opened for business after being closed for more than a year. Mr. Tokome said the re-opening now means more service stations are available in the city to cater for the customers’ fuel demands. [embed]https://fb.watch/i-wOs2YAZB/[/embed]

There is excitement in the air in Palau as the first flight of a weekly service from Australia kicks off. Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr said flights connecting Brisbane to Palau through PNG began on Tuesday. The service is new and is being underwritten by the Australian government's flight programme, Whipps said. He said Air Niugini is flying the route, which was not in operation pre-pandemic. "The weekly flights will be operated by the airline's Boeing 767 aircraft every Tuesday from Brisbane to Palau via Port Moresby with the return flight on Wednesday," Air Niugini Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Alabaster said. Flights to Kiribati, Pompei, Marshall Islands and Nauru are also part of the initiative, in an effort to ramp up air travel and better connect the Pacific, Whipps said. The Nauru service resumed after a two and a half years on hold due to covid-19 border closures. "The programme has supported over 450 flights in the Pacific since December 2020 and throughout the covid-19 pandemic across 14 routes and 11 countries. "This has helped keep Pacific communities connected, maintain supply chains and deliver critical medicines," an Air Niugini spokesperson said. Palau relies on the tourism market and direct access to the Australian market will provide a major boost to the local economy, Alabaster said. He said the real pull factors for tourists are diving and outdoor activities which are unique to Palau. President Whipps encouraged New Zealand and Australian tourists to take up the opportunity. Source: RNZ.Com

Although its a priority of the Government to ensure tax revenue is adequate to fund priority development projects, the increase Corporate Tax for Commercial Banks to 45% was put through without proper consultation, and will in the long run, see commercial banks struggle with its services to customers. That’s from Kina Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director Mr. Greg Pawson when highlighting the potential impacts on Kina Bank as a result of this increase in Corporate Tax. “The reality is that we are a public listed company, and we rely on our shareholders to continue to invest, we re-invest our profits.” “But we also at times reach out to them for more capital to invest, and to put that in perspective, the challenge we’ve got now is why would they invest in an organization that is paying half of their revenue in tax, that just makes no sense.” Mr. Pawson said compared to other countries in the region, Fiji has a 15% Corporate Tax rate, Singapore 17% and PNG has 45%, which he said is among the highest in the world for a commercial bank to be paying. “With it, defeats the whole underlying purpose of commercial banks contributing to the economic propensity of the country.” “Potentially, interest rates will increase, and all concessional lending will stop and some of the investment that we’re planning to make, particularly regional PNG where those communities desperately need banking competition, won’t go ahead.” Sadly, he said further down the line, other services the bank provides to customers would decrease, like financial inclusion and even the plans to extend the bank’s service to parts of the country, like opening new branches, would stop. Pawson added this corporate tax increase was done without proper consultation with the banking sector in the country and as a result, this is now starting to impact the commercial banking services. Despite all this, Kina Bank today announced its 2022 Full Year Financial Results, a Net Profit After Tax of K106.1million, which is an increase of 11% from the previous year. The CEO said the result reflects the Kina Bank’s continued commitment to the nation building program in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Kina Bank provides banking and financial services to over 700, 000 people and lent over K300million this year, helping to support more Papua New Guineans open bank accounts, build new homes, start businesses and grow their prosperity. Mr. Pawson also added that over 300, 000 new customers also joined Kina Bank in 2022. [embed]https://fb.watch/iZh2S4HI4N/[/embed]

The BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) continued to record yet another profit in 2022 despite all the challenges the year brought . The BSP group Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Ronesh Dayal, said the group recorded a net after profit of K1billion, which is up 5.7% from 2021. He made these remarks today when presenting the group's 2022 Full Year Results Mr. Dayal said, “This good result is attributed to the reopening of the borders post COVID and the improved economic activities.” “Although the results were good for 2022, it could have been better.” "The results were impacted by the K190million Additional Company Tax and a one off K135million credit tax expense that resulted from the restatement of deferred tax balances for PNG bank from 30% to 45% in December 2022." Despite this, Mr. Dayal said the bank also saw increased transaction channels, lending, electronic banking and it continues to expand services with the opening of new branches and ATMs through out the country. He added that the good results make the statement that BSP continues to be the largest bank in the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea. “BSP aims to do even better in 2023 for its customers and shareholders alike.” [embed]https://fb.watch/iZ9PwWXrWw/[/embed]