The operational performance of PNG’s two international sea ports of Port Moresby (Motukea) and Lae have been placed in the top 50% of ports in the Oceania Region.
They were among the world’s 405 international ports compared in a report by the World Bank – “Container Port Performance Index 2023: A Comparative Assessment of Performance based on Vessel Time in Port”.
Chief Executive office of PNG Ports, Neil Papenfus, welcomed the Report saying he was impressed with the ranking gained by Motukea and Lae, which were compared against the busiest and more modernised ports in the world.
He said this was the result of the ongoing investments towards greater efficiency at the two ports, in partnership with ICTSI over the last 7 years.
Both ports are owned and managed by PNG Ports Corporation Limited (PNG Ports), and operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) under a 25-year contractual agreement which began in 2017.
Motukea and Lae out-performed the ports of Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Botany, Adelaide and Fremantle in Australia, and New Zealand’s Otago Harbour, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland and Lyttelton port.
These container ports are critical to the global supply chains and essential to the growth strategies for any emerging economy and Motukea and Lae ranked 289 and 326 respectively in the comparison.
The aim of the Report was to pinpoint areas that needed improving at container ports because the negative effect of poor performance in a port affects the global supply chain.
