Japan is the first country in 50 years to receive visa-on-arrival privileges for all its passport holders entering Papua New Guinea (PNG), according to Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru.
“This is a very historic and one of the best decisions by the Marape-Rosso Government in terms of its bilateral, security, and trade and investment relationship with Japan. It reflects the Government’s commitment to our partnership and friendship with Japan over the last 50 years, and importantly our considered opinion that Japanese travellers do not possess a security threat to PNG,” Maru said.
During a meeting with Maru, Japanese Ambassador to PNG Hisanobu Mochizuki said the announcement had generated “joy and excitement” across Japan’s tourism and business sectors. He added that Japan is eager for Air Niugini to resume direct flights between Port Moresby and Narita to enable more Japanese visitors from a range of sectors to travel to PNG.
As part of broader cooperation efforts, Ambassador Mochizuki confirmed that work has begun on the scoping and design of the new Tokua International Airport in East New Britain (ENB) Province. He said the facility’s design “will not be any less than the Tomodachi International Airport in Morobe Province.”
“It will be something that PNG will be very proud of and another flagship project for Japan in PNG that will further enhance the relationship between our two countries,” he said.
Maru emphasized that ENB holds deep historical significance for the Japanese people due to its cemeteries, caves, war relics and memorials from World War II. He credited Prime Minister James Marape for securing Japan’s development aid commitment to Tokua International Airport during high-level talks.
“I want to commend Prime Minister James Marape for pushing for development aid funding from Japan for the new Tokua International Airport at the Prime Minister-to-Prime Minister level while myself and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and our colleagues did our part at the Ministerial level. This project will be a major transformational project for ENB Province and the New Guinea Islands Region and I cannot wait to see this project start,” said Minister Maru.
Looking ahead, Maru invited Ambassador Mochizuki to encourage greater Japanese private-sector investment across PNG’s resource and non-resource industries. He also reiterated PNG’s position on international tax arrangements.
“PNG as a Sovereign State has made the decision not to enter into any more Double Tax Treaties with any country. I want to appeal to Japan and other countries to respect this decision. However, there are many other ways that Japanese companies could benefit and that is through incentives like 10-year tax holidays and duty-free market access for their tradeable goods. We are happy to support them and we will go all out to help Japanese investors to invest in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, forestry, fisheries and other non-resource sectors as well as the resource sector in PNG,” said Minister Maru.
Maru added that the two nations’ longstanding ties provide a strong foundation for deeper cooperation.
“All in all, PNG has enjoyed the very good 50-year friendship with Japan who is our second biggest aid donor and we want to elevate that relationship and anchor it on trade and investment by entering into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan as soon as practical. I plan to visit the new Japanese Trade Minister to continue this discussion in March next year as soon as the new Government settle into office,” he said.
