The Defence Cooperation and the Ship Rider Agreements between the United States and Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been signed this evening amidst protests from the public and university students on it's implications to the country's constitution and sovereignty. US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken officially signed the Agreements with PNG Defence Minister Win Bakri Daki in front of Prime Minister James Marape, the PNG delegates and the US delegates at the APEC Haus, Port Moresby. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the agreement will ensure greater cooperation between the two countries in terms of security and prosperity in the region as a whole. Mr. Blinken said in general that the US is deeply invested in the Indo- Pacific region and stands ready to assist pacific countries in their areas of need, including working together to address serious challenges. He said it is this commitment that resulted in the signing of the two Defence Agreements on Monday. "The defense cooperation agreement, drafted by Papua New Guinea and United States as equals and sovereign partners, will enhance PNG defence force capabilities to deliver humanitarian assistance, including to providing medical and temporary shelter to those who are affected by crisis." The Ship Rider Agreement on the other hand will allow PNG defence force and US Coast Guards to deepen cooperation to combat illicit maritime activities. "This including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which we know is destroying livelihoods and threatening marine ecosystems that nourish pacific island countries." Meanwhile, Prime Minister James Marape reiterated that the agreements do not have any implications to the country's constitution and sovereignty as per the concerns and outcry from sectors of the public. He said these agreements should benefit the country going forward and the people should embrace it.

Prime Minister (PM) James Marape, on behalf of his fellow pacific island leaders, has asked the Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to be the advocate for smaller pacific states on the global arena on the issues affecting the pacific. In his opening remarks at the Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIIC) Summit today, Marape said the pacific will continue to be place for trade and commerce and a place for movement of people, if the matters of climate change and geopolitical issues impacting the pacific nations are addressed at the top by leading global economies. Marape said India being the emerging leader in the global south, can take the pacific concerns to the G20 and G7 meetings. In the global south, we have development challenges, our resources have been harvested and our people have been left behind, PM Marape said. You have emerged as the leader of the global south and I want to thank you. As discussions in our own bilateral meeting this morning, you will advocate as you host the G20 this year, on issues relate to the global south. We want India to be a strong voice and advocate of challenges we go through, said the PM. Marape said the two pressing issues causing insecurity in the pacific are climate change where sea level rise continues to threaten the livelihoods of pacific people, and the threats of global politics like the war in Ukraine impacting the pacific, which Marape said has caused the high cost of fuel and power tariffs, especially in the smaller island states.  

Pacific Island leaders have been urged to be vocal on the matters affecting the island states when meeting with India and the US today in the Forum for India and Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit.   Prime Minister James Marape in his opening speech at the official FIPIC opening dinner on Sunday night, said that climate change and access to green energy are two of the important topics to bring across to the world leaders because of their impacts on the island economies.  Meanwhile, all the leaders of the island states have arrived in Port Moresby on Sunday in preparation for the FIPIC Summit.   The New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins also arrived late in the evening, while the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arrived later in the evening at 9:25pm. The US Secretary of State arrival later in the night.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) will go through with the signing agreement of the Defence Cooperation with the United States of America despite concerns from public and concerned professionals about its implications to the country. Prime Minister James Marape in a press conference just before the official opening dinner of the Forum of India and Pacific Island Cooperation (FIPIC), made it known again that there is no reason to be skeptical as the agreement does not breach any of the provisions in the country's constitution. In fact, Marape clarified that there won't be any immunity given to US troops and contractors on PNG soil. "Any engaged US military personnel are subject to same investigation and prosecution as any PNG soldier, PNG contractor for that matter." He said the agreement would create better defence relationship with PNG and the US. "It establishes greater colleboration with United States of America, it deals more directly with the Pantagon and Murray Barracks, between Waigani and Washington." Marape further said that this security agreement has nothing to do with the geopolitical interests. All in all, he stressed that this is all about the country's security in terms of it's sea and land borders and the threat of transnational crimes. He also said that the agreement once signed, will be for a period of 15 years and is subject to termination should there be implications to the country's sovereignty or laws. Meanwhile, the Defence Cooperation is expected to be signed today between PM Marape and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during FIPIC.

The Moitaka Power Station in Port Moresby is back in operation boosting power supply to the city after PNG Power Limited (PPL) announced the recommissioning this week. The Moitaka Power Station which was established in 1980 has been a reliable source of electricity in Port Moresby for several decades until it was decommissioned in 2019 after several Independent Power Producers (IPP) were introduced into the Port Moresby Grid. Initially, the Moitaka Power Station had a station output of 16 Megawatts (MW) from two Hitachi Zosen Z40 Diesel Engines (Unit 1 & 2). It was later increased to the capacity of an additional 15 MW with the installation of a GE LM2500 (GT2) and had two Mirrlees Blackstone MK16KV Diesel Engines (Unit 3 & 4) added with an individual capacity of 8 MW each. The Moitaka units are high-inertia thermal engines with a significant rotational mass. This means that they can store energy and respond slowly to changes in demand, making them suitable for stabilizing the grid. Their characteristics make them suitable for the Port Moresby grid application, where they can complement hydro generation. Although hydro generation is a renewable and flexible source of electricity, it depends on water availability and environmental factors. High-inertia thermal engines can provide backup power and grid stability, especially during peak hours or emergencies. The decision to recommission the Moitaka Power Station was made after thoroughly analyzing the Port Moresby grid's energy needs. Despite the decommissioning of the Moitaka Power Station in 2019 to focus on PNG Power's "Least Cost" and "Fuel Switch" plans, other energy sources could not regulate the grid. As a result, the PNG Power Board made the decision to recommission the station in the last quarter of 2022. Furthermore, on the 19th of this month, the Moitaka Unit 3 was made available and can now be safely dispatched with 6MW of power. The recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Power Station will provide much-needed backup power and stability to the Port Moresby grid. PPL is committed to ensuring that the Port Moresby grid has sufficient backup power and stability when required. The recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Station is a significant step towards achieving this objective. According to Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PPL, Mr. Nehemaiah Naris, who was present to start up the first recommissioned unit, thanked all the stakeholders for their contribution towards a successful recommissioning of the Moitaka Power Station, especially the hardworking PPL restoration team. The PPL restoration team will now work towards restoring Unit 4 to bring additional capacity to the Port Moresby Grid in the coming months. In addition to this, PPL is confident that the recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Station will improve power reliability in the Port Moresby Grid. PPL remains committed to providing reliable and affordable electricity to its customers.

Papua New Guinean’s relationship with other nations including China, will not be impacted in any way from a Defence Cooperation Agreement that will be signed with the United States (US), as the agreement is merely to protect the country’s waters from illegal activities. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when addressing the media this week, made it clear that the country’s bilateral relationship with other nations will remain the same despite the upcoming defence agreement, which is for the Ship Rider Program where local law enforcement officers are allowed to embark on U.S. Coast Guard vessels, including boarding and searching suspected vessels. “I want to give assurance to our country; it is nothing to be skeptical about. This agreement doesn’t stop us to relate to other countries in as far as having similar treaties or similar defence cooperation with all other nations around us,” said PM Marape. “I just want to inform everyone that it will be transparent. Parliament will be privy to what we are signing.” “At the moment our entire foreign affairs team has been leading the negotiations and we’re at a stage where we’re almost at the signing.” He said the Ship Rider Agreement doesn’t mean a full-on military involvement or changes to legislations affecting bilateral relationships, it is to secure the coastal areas, the high seas and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in PNG waters from illegal activities like drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal fishing and sea piracy. The agreement is expected to be signed by the US Secretary of State Mr. Antony Blinken during the upcoming Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Port Moresby.  

The trade and investment opportunities with one of the biggest economies in the world, India will be one of the focuses of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to explore during the upcoming Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Port Moresby. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when updating the country on the arrival of the foreign delegates for FIPIC, said PNG is anticipating the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be engaging in important dialogues with pacific leaders. PM Marape said India is an important economic power in the world in the Asian market and to foster stronger relationship with it would mean PNG benefiting in a big way; hence, the FIPIC meeting is an important opportunity for the country to tap into that market. “Papua New Guinea, we are privileged to have India as a partner and this is the first time ever that India Prime Minister is stepping into our country and for us it has opened a third dimension into our geopolitical relationships,” said Marape. “It opens up a place for market, for commerce, for trade, and for sourcing technical capacities as far as bilateral relationship is concerned.” PM Marape said the FIPIC meeting, the main reason for the pacific leaders coming to Port Moresby, is going ahead as scheduled and within budget. Marape also urged the people to embrace the leaders coming to PNG in true Melanesian way. Meanwhile, the Indian PM along with the New Zealand PM are expected to arrive this weekend with PM Modi to arrive on Sunday 21st May. Caption:

After ten years in the resource sector local landowner company KutMor Limited now looks at venturing out of the Oil and Gas business and into other business areas. The landowner company (Lanco) recently marked its 10th Anniversary in Port Moresby where it looked back on the years of its operation and the contributions to the landowner groups that make up the shareholders of the company. The Lanco’s Deputy Chairman Mr. Nelson Alina said KutMor is not only focused on creating wealth but build its capacity to provide opportunities like employment for the future generation of Moran and Kutubu landowners, when the oil and gas projects cease in the future. “We are going in that direction by taking a step each day to move out from the oil and gas focus business to other business interest outside of the oil and gas project area.” KutMor is a local company owned by the Incorporated Land Groups (ILG) and others who are directly impacted by the Kutubu, Moran and Mananda areas, located in the Southern Highlands and Hela Provinces.  The Lanco was formed as a direct result of meetings by landowner leaders and Lanco leaders in late 2011 and early 2012. The company is structured into 14 share classes each representing a discreet geographic area either within or in a buffer area in close proximity to the existing Petroleum Development Licenses (PDL) 2, 5 and 6.

Tenants residing in flats or homes that happen to have an illegal power connection to them tend to suffer when the power is disconnected by PNG Power Limited (PPL) or stand to risk it all through a fire or electrocution. That’s the risk that tenants face when their respective landlord resorts to stealing power instead of doing the right thing by paying for electricity like every other hard-working people do. In Port Moresby this week, PPL teams were out to inspect the homes on the list that have been disconnected previously, to see if they have not illegally reconnected again. As it turned out, there were a lot of them discovered that have illegally reconnected. According to Mr. Damien Kaputin, the Acting Manager for Meter Audit Low Consumption of the Retail Division, in Gerehu alone three homes were illegally reconnected while three others were discovered as new illegal connections. Most of them were properties rented out to tenants, where those tenants now don’t have electricity running through their homes, all because their landlord had to hire a couple of electricians to connect or reconnect illegally. “With illegal connections, it’s a big issue. We are concerned about the nature in which the customers get reconnected which are unsafe and not to standards that could cause electrocution and fire.” He said those that have been disconnected, they have to come to PNG Power and pay up their outstanding bills so that the PNG Power team can correct and connect them with a proper meter. “Also, those customers that are still on illegal connection, they can come up front and report the illegal connections so that PNG Power can assist to connect them in a proper way with an easipay meter.”

The Minister for International Trade and Investment is adamant to have the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Policy and Master Plan set and ready launched for the country by mid this year. Minister Richard Maru, when giving an update on the policy and master plan after the inaugural SEZ Summit recently, said that both items are a work in progress at this stage. “The secretary went through the initial drafts at the summit, we got a lot of good comments coming through so we working on fine tuning the initial draft and hopefully by next week, we’ll put a new version of the draft on our website and ask for more comments from the members of the public.” He said once the policy is finalized it will be taken to cabinet for approval before the policy is taken to parliament and then make it available through its launching. “We are keen on bringing the policy by June along with the master plan for the 10 year development of SEZs in Papua New Guinea (PNG).” “We are also working on a revised legislation that we have to have completed so that after June, we’ll bring it to NEC (National Executive Summit) and parliament. Minister Maru said the country can expect a new amended Act, a new SEZ Policy and a new SEZ Master plan deliver between July and August of this year.

The PNG Power Limited (PPL) exercise to disconnect illegal power connection to easipay meters through a by- pass or direct connection to a building without the use of a meter box, is to come up with a better way to deal with the matter going forward. According to Mr. Damien Kaputin, the Acting Manager Meter Audit Low Consumption of the Retail Division of PPL, this work is done in conjunction with USAID as part of the United States assistance to achieve Papua New Guinea’s reach of electricity of 70% by 2030 as per the government's goals. He said from this exercise, a proper working process should be put together to deal with this particular issue going forward, including taking legal action on those who steal power from PNG Power through illegal connection. “That’s the next step that the company (PPL) is trying to go through, and we have our USAID team, the consultants who are here who assist on the legal end of it to discourage customers doing illegal reconnections without paying up their back bills.” He said there are about 50 customers that PPL will check again after disconnecting them previously for illegal connection. These 50 are just part of over a thousand in the same situation, but this batch would be used to make assessments as to what actions to take, what needs to be changed and how to properly address this going forward. The outcome will come in the form of a report that will be later discussed between PPL and USAID and the state, on the solutions to this problem going forward. Yesterday's  exercise saw about six homes in Gerehu in Port Moresby disconnected again after the landlords and owners of the premises reconnected the power illegally. PNG Power loses 25% of revenue each year to power theft alone, in addition to the other loses like from outstanding bill payments and from transmission loss.

The government is ready to partner with viable companies operating in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, said that this partnership will be in the form of government investments in the companies with funding already made available by the government. “The government this week approved funding, which is already in the budget for this year, of K100million for government to take up shares in companies, in particular in the Special Economic Zones that we feel we need to support to get investment across the line, or bring in much needed capital to start or grow their investment that are important for the country.” Maru also explained that this funding doesn’t mean that the government will be making investments in all SEZ projects because there could be some projects that would need government funding. “I want to make it clear to the country that not every SEZ project would require government equity funding, only those that we feel we need to get across the line because the country needs that sector to move or exports to be in place or we need downstream processing. That’s when the government may consider investing in a number of companies using the state equity fund of the government.” He explained that the government would put the capital as an investor in a company through Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH). “It’s an investment fund that the government will use for strategic investments that we believe are very important to this country.” Meanwhile, the first project that the state will invest in going forward in the SEZ space is the massive Rigo Rice project in the Central province.