“Opportunities Beyond the Boom” was the theme for the 30th Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Forum, which began today in Cairns, Australia.
Attending this morning’s opening address were some of the country’s political heavies, with the Prime Minister himself leading the ministerial delegation.
Mr. O’Neill spoke proudly of the country’s first LNG export to Japan in the coming days but stated that PNG needed to be more competitive in the Asia Pacific region while maintaining its leadership status in the Pacific.
Reaffirming the Asian Development Bank’s prediction about PNG’s GDP growing to an unprecedented level next year, he stated that economic growth is steady while export performance is sound.
The Prime Minister, however, also refuted the caution made by the Central Bank with regards to having high hopes about the revenues from the first LNG exports.
The Governor for the Central Bank, Loi Bakani, had warned the government and stakeholders not to have high expectations of windfall revenue in the first year of production.
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