Prime Minister (PM) Marape has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to giving priority to Papua New Guinean contractors in awarding public contracts, in line with the Government’s National Content Policy. PM assured the nation that his government is focused on creating an enabling environment for local businesses to thrive, ensuring that Papua New Guinean-owned firms have a central role in the country’s development projects. “This ensures that our people are part of these major projects, and that wealth is shared within the country.” “Ultimately, it’s about giving Papua New Guineans the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the development of our nation. Together, we can achieve sustainable growth by building local capacity and promoting national ownership of key projects. Our government is the first government that sets benchmark for local contracts, and in all contracts, we issued we mandate that international contractors must allocate 40% of their project scope to local contractors,” said PM Marape. PM emphasized the importance of ensuring that local businesses benefit from economic opportunities generated within the country, in response to calls from the President of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PNGCCI). “Our National Content Policy ensures that Papua New Guinean-owned companies are given a fair share of public contracts. It’s about empowering our people to take charge of building our nation. We are determined to make sure that our contractors are not left behind when it comes to infrastructure and development projects.” The PM acknowledged the concerns raised regarding foreign companies being awarded contracts at the expense of local firms and he assured that the government has policies in place to address this imbalance by creating a level playing field for local businesses to compete. “The Government is working to ensure that local companies meet scope of Works Requirements and have the financial and technical capacity to deliver projects. We also encourage foreign contractors to partner with local firms to build capacity and share expertise,” he said. He further noted that addressing challenges such as access to finance, regulatory compliance and capacity building is a priority as the government is actively working to ease the regulatory burden and improve financing options for local contractors through initiatives such as SME funding programmes and credit guarantees. PM Marape also highlighted the importance of local companies raising their standards to compete with foreign firms. “Our contractors must strive for technical competency, good governance and reliable project delivery to remain competitive.”