The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) is looking forward to working towards full delivery of the long awaited Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) in Madang through its partnership with the new Ministry of International Trade and Investment.
The NFA Managing Director, Mr. Justin Ilakini said it’s been 15 years now and still nothing much has been done to fully establish the PMIZ project, which would lead to good trade and commerce and job creation for many Papua New Guineans.
“We look forward to working with the Ministry, the Minister responsible and everyone to see that we can finally deliver this project for the people of Madang, for the people of PNG (Papua New Guinea) and the region because this is a project that extends not only within the boundaries of PNG but throughout the region,” said Mr. Ilakini.
The Director said that the upcoming inaugural Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Summit will be a good platform for NFA to push for the PMIZ project to be one of those first SEZs to be implemented in the country.
The NFA Director made this known during the recent presentation of K100, 000 to the Ministry of International Trade and Investment as sponsor for the SEZ Summit coming up on the 8th and 9th of May.
Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru thanked NFA for its contribution towards the Summit and he called on the entity to come up with a domestication policy.
“We have a situation right now in the country where all the fish that are caught in our waters are not processed onshore. Only up to about 10 to 15% of the catch is brought back to the canneries and the fish processing plants in Papua New Guinea, while over 80% leave our shores and are processed in other countries and this is totally unacceptable.
Minister Maru also said that in the future he wants to see 100% of catch from within PNG waters, processed here in country.
“The Ministry of International Trade and Investment is going to partner NFA, and we are going to go all the way to legislation and policy and whatever that needs to be done to ensure that we unleash the fisheries industry and maximize the benefit,” added Minister Maru.
The PMIZ project is a fisheries industrial project that will retain a large portion of the tuna caught in the pacific for processing. The project was approved in 2004 and is one of PNG’s first proposed special economic zones.