The Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru is adamant to ensure that his new ministry will deliver the much-needed economic improvement the country needs, by improving trade and investments through the newly created Department of International Trade and Investment.
Minister Maru, who spoke at the official announcement last night of the new Acting Secretary for the new department Ms. Jacinta Warakai Manua, said it is now time to look at the non-mining and petroleum sector to build investments and trade with other countries.
Maru said the country has depended too long on the mining and petroleum sector for its development, but so far it has not alleviated many of the people’s plights.
He said despite the country having eight different resource projects in the mining and petroleum sector, there is still high unemployment rates, high deficit, and high national debt.
Therefore, the minister said it’s high time they look at taking another approach to addressing these issues, and that approach is trade and investments in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects, something he said the Marape- Rosso government is passionate about.
“This country needs serious investments; we need to grow the private sector so we can create jobs. Without investments, nothing will happen,” said the minister.
“We have to find investors in the non- mining and petroleum sector, that’s number one priority and this is the department that has been created by the prime minister to drive this agenda.” T
o ensure that happens, Maru said the ministry will start working on the new structure of the Department of International Trade and Investment, where one arm will look after the development of the Special Economic Zones, one arm to look after investments and one arm to work with the National Trade Office.
He said the SEZ concept is their focus to drive the government’s initiative to improve the economy. As such, Minister Maru wants inter-agency and inter- departmental corporation with the Department of International Trade and Investment, and commitment by his officers and staff to the objectives of this newly created department.
Maru said this is important because with investments in these SEZs, trade can be improved with countries and foreign investments increase in the establishment of downstream processing, which will then lead to job creation for many people resulting in better income, better service, and better livelihoods.