The Pacific Island Centre in Tokyo and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) have coordinated a mission to allow a delegate of 50 Japanese investors to explore business opportunities in the sectors of energy, infrastructure, tourism and agriculture. PNG continues to attract investors into the country because of its diverse natural resources, despite recent unfortunate but “one-off” events. The IPA organizes many programs including the visit by the Japanese Investors since last year to bring Foreign Direct Investment into the Country. The visit will involve a two-day business forum at the Stanley hotel on February 28th and the 29th, with the aim to strengthen cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, and tourism between PNG and Japan through possible matchmaking discussions on (Business to Business) B2B, (Business to Government) B2G as well as (Government to Government) G2G, by studying and establish the needs of local companies in PNG. IPA Managing Director, Mr. Clarence Hoot stressed that with the confidence hesitation drawn from the unfortunate chaos on 10th January 2024, IPA prepared this program to show the rest of the world that PNG remains a good investment destination. “We want to regain confidence in investors and demonstrate that PNG is open for business,” said Mr. Hoot. One of the IPA’s key programs over the years has been to facilitate investments in the country while at the same time promoting PNG as an attractive country given its natural resource endowments and diverse industrial potentials; however, a key setback continues to be the law and order concerns. “Even though such problems are common throughout the world, and occur just occasionally, security is one of the costs that investors unfortunately have to incur as part of their operational costs to ensure that their businesses are protected and secured.” In issuing the statement, Mr. Hoot also gave his confidence to other relevant heads of government agencies involved in promoting PNG, saying that although challenging situations arise, the people and the companies operating in the country have become resilient and continue to recover, rebuild and diversify doing business in Papua New Guinea and move on into the future. Meanwhile, Mr. Hoot said the overall theme of the mission is: Co-creation by the Japanese and PNG private sectors for a balanced promotion of various industries that contribute to sustainable economic development in PNG.