Stakeholders and investors hope for a quick resolution to key resource project negotiations in driving economic growth and confidence.
This was according to Kina bank Executive general manager for banking Lesieli Taviri who said that this was on top of the government spending to enhance infrastructure and provide confidence - until the global pandemic dissipates.
“The resource projects currently in the pipeline for PNG represent an estimated K110 billion in foreign investment and domestic production over their lives,” Taviri said. “The 2021 National Budget projects over K40 billion in capital expenditure from 2021 to 2025. This fiscal support, especially after the sharp downturn witnessed globally, gives some measure of reassurance to economic stakeholders and has the potential to set a solid foundation for future growth in PNG. The resource projects continue to be the main economic drivers in the medium term.”
She added that the year 2020 was a challenging year.
“The Prime Minister stated in September that PNG’s economy had declined by K10.7 billion in nominal terms by the third quarter, which is significant relative to estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of K81.6 billion,” she said. “The cancellation of the Papua LNG and P’nyang LNG before the Covid-19 outbreak put a dampener on investments in resource-adjacent sectors and tilted risks in the broader economy towards the downside. The pandemic aggravated these risks and caused a number of private and commercial investments to be either delayed or cancelled outright.”
