By Delly Waigeno – EM TV News, Port Moresby
Experts in the economy say Papua New Guinea is well placed as a frontier emerging market.
Richard Borysiewicz, General Manager of BSP Capital, said PNG has come full circle with more sustainable growth in numbers.
According to Roy Trivedy, UN Resident Coordinator in PNG, translating that healthy growth into the wellbeing of the people remains a challenge.
Marco Venditti, Editorial Director of Oxford Business Group, said over the last three years he has seen a growing middle class in Port Moresby and other major centres. He said PNG’s middle class is going to be the country’s engine for the growth in the long run.
“The future of Papua New Guinea belongs to the middle class,” he said.
John Leahy, President of the PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that from a recent visit to China, PNG is hoping to get support for the agro industry and possibly aquaculture as well.
He said the Asia country’s middle class is also growing and they want places to go to for tourism.
Richard Borysiewicz, General Manager of BSP Capital, said PNG has returned to more normal numbers.
“We’ve actually gone full circle and we’ve actually reached a new norm where we’ve got more rational, more reasonable, more sustainable growth numbers which are healthy so they won’t create runaway inflation for arguments sake. They won’t create distortions in capital markets, they won’t create distortions between supply and demand that runaway and rampant growth can have,” Mr Borysiewicz said.
He said looking at PNG now; it’s the beginning of a maturing phase that’s healthy for PNG.
He said right now there is a surplus of gas in the world and by 2020, there will be a shortage of gas in the world with no new projects coming on stream.
This places PNG as a frontier emerging market with great opportunity to participate as a major new energy exporter close to markets that need energy.
“So it is a rational company; it is rational investor; it is a rational participant, that looks at PNG as says I need to be there,” Borysiewicz said.
UN Resident Coordinator in PNG, Roy Trivedy, said all these need to be translated to improving the livelihood of the people.
“Compared to everywhere else in the world, the growth story in Papua New Guinea is still incredible. The challenge for us as a country is how do we translate that growth into the wellbeing of our people,” Trivedy said.
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