The Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate in progressing work towards the draw down of the investment promotion and business registration powers for the ABG. Managing Director of the Investment Promotion Authority Mr. Clarence Hoot signed the MoU with the ABG Chief Secretary Mr. Kearnneth Nanei in a momentous ceremony witnessed by key stakeholders and members of the private sector in Bougainville. The MoU serves as a work plan for IPA and ABG to share knowledge and skills to build capacity within the ABG Department of Commerce Trade and Industry and Economic Development; as well as develop appropriate policies and legislations to establish an entity fitting for Bougainville once relevant powers have been drawn. The MoU also allows for IPA to provide support to the ABG towards establishing a Bougainville entity registration facility and to transition entity registration powers from the IPA to ABG. The MoU includes work on intellectual property rights which will also be transferred to the ABG. IPA Managing Director Mr. Clarence Hoot said, “A key consideration in the process is the need to explore a corporate structure for ABG to adopt for the region in terms of business entity-types and how it can work best for the private sector on the ground.” Mr. Hoot told the ABG government representatives and the AROB private sector to discuss whether it is necessary to create a new agency to perform the IPA and business registry functions or to capacitate the existing Bougainville Inward Investment Bureau and give them the powers to deliver the IPA and business registry powers. He also said that the agency that will perform these functions must contain the four principles of: good governance, transparency, accountability and responsiveness firstly to private sector and the Bougainville government. Mr. Hoot gave statistics from the IPA business registry which showed that currently there are 569 limited Bougainville companies registered; 2,319 Business Names, 98 Business Groups, 53 Associations and 18 Foreign Companies. Mr. Hoot also said that some of the things included in the MoU were already under implementation, for instance, collaboration under the Inward Investment Bureau since 2013 and now the strategies towards the drawdown of business registry powers. The IPA also assisted the ABG back then in the establishment of the Bougainville Inward Investment Bureau to perform investment promotions function for the Bougainville region. ABG Chief Secretary Mr. Kearnneth Nanei was appreciative of IPA through the Managing Director for progressing the MoU which he says will assist towards the revenue generation of the Region. “We would like to develop a system and entity that is friendly and addresses the Ease of Doing Business agenda in AROB,” he said The signing the MoU was made possible because of the Sharp Agreement 2019, which allows ABG to progress the process of transfer of functions and powers irrespective of whether a specific request was made by ABG or not. The Sharp Agreement demonstrates both Government’s understanding of the need to remove other forms of economic and financial controls which hinder the ability of the ABG to effectively perform its functions as well as manage its own revenue collection. Meanwhile, Mr. Hoot has refuted a misleading media report published in The National Newspaper on January 27th that the IPA has handed over its powers to ABG to run its business and company registrations and other IPA functions. He said the media was invited to the MoU signing and workshop so they could understand the discussions right from the start and be part of the process. The report by the newspaper however, shows the inability of relevant stakeholders in following and understanding the process.