Work on improving the venues for the BSP PNG Games 2014 has now begun, after organisers signed up more key business sponsors, according to the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Phil Franklin. ‘The Bank of South Pacific has come on board as naming rights sponsor, which is excellent’, he told Business Advantage PNG. Another recent signatory has been PNG Ports Corporation Ltd as a major sponsor, which is contributing K350,000 towards the 6th staging of

Economic growth in Papua New Guinea’s non-resources sectors is forecast to reach 1.6% this year, experts have warned.The Asian Development Bank says activity outside of mining and petroleum is expected to continue to slow, creating challenges for formal sector job opportunities.While growth in the LNG sector is expected to hit a record 20% next year due to the PNG LNG project coming online, the ADB’s Pacific Economic Monitor total growth across all sectors is expected

The Host Organising Committee (HOC) of the BSP PNG Games is delighted to announce PNG Ports Corporation Limited (PNGPCL) as a major sponsor.PNGPCL has announced its support of K350,000 towards the 6th staging of the Games, which will be held in Lae, Morobe Province.PNGPCL is PNG’s major port service provider, providing the gateway to most provinces and islands around the nation. Among its 15 ports, Lae Port is by far the largest and is currently undergoing

New land has been made available at Lae Nadzab Airport for growth of a supporting commercial business sector. Several commercial development opportunities at Lae Nadzab Airport have been offered by the National Airports Corporation (NAC) as part of ongoing upgrades.Lae Nadzab Airport, which is about 40km outside of the Morobe Province capital, is already upgrading operational facilities, while improvements are also being made to infrastructure in the area.The next step of development the NAC is

The number of requests filed with the International Centre for ADR of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) surged in 2013 largely as a result of the mandate given to ICC by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to administer disputes over new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) names. At the same time, the Centre handled a growing number of cases in its core areas of ADR, including mediation, as well as expertise

The rapidly weakening kina, deficit spending and the financing of government debt is piling pressure on the Papua New Guinea government to boost economic confidence. Economist Dr Mark Evans considers some of the issues facing both government and business. The depreciating kina, with its potential impact on inflation, official foreign exchange reserves and investor confidence, is the biggest challenge to face the Bank of Papua New Guinea in recent years. The depreciation was predicted to

INTEROIL has announced the sale of its Papua New Guinea oil refinery and petroleum products distribution businesses to Singapore-based Puma Energy for $US525.6 million. The deal includes adjustments for cash and working capital and is intended to allow InterOil to focus on its higher-returning upstream and LNG business. InterOil’s downstream businesses include the Napa Napa refinery in Port Moresby that processes about 28,000 barrels a day as well as 52 retail service stations, 30 fuel

MINIMUM WAGE In today’s newspaper, and over the last few weeks there have been many reports that the NEC has approved an increase in the Minimum Wage from K2.29 to K3.20 per hour. The PNG Chamber of Commerce has not been formally informed of the Government’s decision nor has it been able to confirm this announcement. Thomas Abe the new CEO of the PNGCCI said in a message to me yesterday said – “I fronted

The signing of the first major backer for a new Papua New Guinea television drama series paves the way to develop a local TV production industry, according to the show’s producers. This week, telecommunications company Telikom PNG entered a sponsorship deal to part-underwrite the first series of the show, Central Giants. Central Giants tells the story of an ethnically diverse, Port Moresby-based rugby league team fighting their way through a competition season, in spite of