Papua New Guinea’s reputation as a country built on the extractive resource sector has been on the increase in recent years.
There are however, issues within the sector that need drastic improvement.
One of these areas is the management of revenue derived from the extractive resource industries.
For the department of Petroleum & Energy, although the department is responsible for extremely important revenue source, its own recording systems leave a lot to be desired – these have been highlighted in both PNG’s EITI Country reports (2013 and 2014).
Much of this has been blamed on the lack of capacity within DPE.
But there is optimism that this will change.
The Government of Japan, through its international development agency, JICA, will soon be commencing a technical program to address this issue over the next three years.
Immediately following the conclusion of the 2017 National General Elections, JICA will work together with PNGEITI to build the capacities of core government agencies responsible for managing revenue coming into the country through the extractive resource sector.
Of immediate priority will be the systems and processes within DPE.
According to Takashi Toyama, JICA’s Chief Representative in PNG, this Technical Cooperation project is the first that JICA is embarking on within the EITI space:
“…supporting EITI in Papua New Guinea is JICA’s first global experience and exposure supporting this new global initiative. And I am excited to state that PNG was chosen as the first EITI candidate country for JICA’s technical cooperation support. We look forward to the successful implementation of this project.”
