The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru has assured parliament that the Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) Project in Madang is on track to commence construction by next year and onwards. Minister Maru, when responding to questions from the Member for Kundiawa on the status of the PMIZ project during question time in parliament this week, said the project is currently in the negotiation phase with RD Tuna Cannery, to partner with the government to develop the project. “So, the government’s plan is to go into a joint venture agreement with them, start the fishing and look at building a first big world class cannery in PMIZ next year using some of the funds that the government has provided for in the budget, K70 million for PMIZ and K30 million for the Manus province to go into fisheries,” said Minister Maru. “So, that’s where we are at. At this stage we are hoping that the State Negotiation Team and the RD team will conclude the negotiations over the next four weeks, and a proposal will come back to Cabinet to set up the first joint venture company.” Maru explained that once this goes through, it will for the first-time see Papua New Guineans be able to own fishing boats and fish their own waters, plus the country to have bigger and better fish processing facilities to process the country’s own catches and export to overseas markets in large quantities. “This is a very important step, and I am happy to inform parliament that in the next few weeks I should be bringing back a proposal to Cabinet on how we can go into a joint venture and by next year, start building the first fish processing plant within the PMIZ.” "If we get the first one up, I have no doubt many other investors will start looking at putting up processing facilities within PMIZ and then that’s how we’ll get it built at the cheapest cost possible.” He further explained that idea to partner with RD Tuna is that the company already has an existing fish processing plant in Madang next to the PMIZ project area and instead of building the PMIZ on its own and spend more money, a partnership with RD Tuna was the best option as it would cost less to develop the PMIZ project. Meanwhile, once completed the PMIZ Project is expected to create employment for 10, 000 Papua New Guineans.