Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, has voiced his support in PNG’s increased partnership in trade and investment with APEC partner nation, Thailand.
He made the comments whilst receiving the Letter of Introduction from the non-resident Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to Papua New Guinea, Chirachai Punkrasin, recently in Port Moresby.
Upon welcoming Ambassador Punkrasin, O’Neill both discussed matters of mutual benefit and encouraged Thailand to promote more investment, trade and people-to-people interactions and exchanges.
In an interview with EM TV’s Business PNG – OBG Corner in June of this year, Prime Minister O’Neill said “I believe the more we engage with the international community, especially with investors who have an interest in investing in Papua New Guinea, that’s where the jobs are; investments that are coming in are creating jobs for Papua New Guineans. We cannot continue to stop investors and try to make it difficult for them to come into the country. We need big investors that are going to employ thousands of people.”
Reiterating this point on Tuesday he said Papua New Guinea will increase its trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges with the Kingdom of Thailand. O’Neill and Ambassador Punkrasin discussed areas of trade and investment as well as the potential to promote other sectors such as tourism and agriculture.
“Thailand is a thriving business economy and Papua New Guinea could learn a lot from it,” the Prime Minister said.
“There has also been an increase in trade, investment with developed partners like China, the United States and Japan, and Papua New Guinea looks forward to doing the same with Thailand,” he added.
The inter-relations of Papua New Guinea and Thailand since 1976 were further emphasised upon by Ambassador Pukrasin, saying we now have a proper framework in place for more technical cooperation.
As an economy that has twice hosted APEC and will host again in 2022, Prime Minister O’Neill said the two countries can work together to share experiences in preparing for APEC.
