The PNG Ports Corporation (PNG Ports) has presented a cheque of K200,000 to take up Gold Sponsorship for the upcoming 2nd Papua New Guinea Special Economic Summit that will be hosted at the APEC Haus in Port Moresby from August 31st- September 3rd, 2025.
The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, thanked the Chairman of the PNG Ports Board, Mr. Harvey Nii, Managing Director, Mr. Neil Papenfus, the Board and Management of PNG Ports and the Minister for State Enterprises, Hon. William Duma, for their support towards this very important Summit.
PNG Ports owns and manages 15 out of the 23 declared ports in the country with the Port of Lae being the largest port in the country and the busiest and the most economical port of the PNG Ports.
Minister Maru said: “My Ministry and Department are very happy to work with the PNG Ports to grow their business because bulk of our trade is done using ports. PNG Ports is the most important entity which we must continue to support and make important strategic decisions for the business must grow and be more efficient into the future. We look forward to receiving their Submission for the proposed Lae Port Industrial Park so we can take it to the NEC next week to be processed and approved, and the SEZ Authority will grant them license subject to PNG Ports meeting all the regulatory requirements. We are ready to provide PNG Ports all fiscal incentives provided they have all the utilities including water supply, sewerage system, and reliable power supply which is a very important factor that will attract investors to be located within their proposed SEZ. There are already two major investors who are keen to be located within this proposed SEZ and we are also looking at the possibility of establishing a downstream processing facility, specifically a copper smelter within this SEZ.”
Minister Maru also encouraged PNG Ports to consider becoming a partner to build a new international wharf in the proposed Madang Integrated SEZ.
“With the plan to have 10 new fish canneries in the proposed Madang Integrated SEZ and with the new road being built from Baiyer in Mt. Hagen to Madang, the proposed international wharf will be an alternative to Lae Port to service the Highlands because of the proximity. We are hoping that the PNG Ports can be a partner in this so instead of two ports competing in Madang, we can have only one international wharf,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru further stated: “In West Sepik, the pipeline for the Freida Mine will go into Vanimo Port and the proposed Vanimo Free Trade Zone will be a major manufacturing hub with manufactured goods for export especially into Indonesia and Asia. We also have more oil palm coming into Vanimo port for export. In East Sepik, we already have 20,000 hectares of palm and we plan to go into major oil palm development in the proposed Sepik Plains SEZ. With this development, we are of the view that both Wewak and Vanimo should have international ports because there will be huge increase in the volumes of cargo into the future. We must be visionary and not just look at the short-term rehabilitation of the existing ports that are unsuitable to cater for large volumes of cargo.”
