A small delegation from Papua New Guinea (PNG) will be visiting New Zealand (NZ) in April to hold high-level talks on trade and investment between the two nations.
The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru said the visit to NZ will be to learn from the experience of New Zealand’s capital market industry and seek New Zealand Government’s support to transform the Securities Commission of PNG and the capital market industry of PNG.
Whilst there, the PNG delegation will also visit the chicken and dairy farms and invite the New Zealand investors in these industries to invest in PNG, especially in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
“We want to look at New Zealand’s chicken industry and invite the New Zealand investors in this industry to come and invest in PNG because we still continue to import an estimate of over K100 million worth of chicken annually and this results in loss of jobs and revenue for our MSMEs, SMEs, and our industry. We want to stop that.”
“We also do not want to be exposed to the risk of imported chicken diseases like the Avian Influenza and others. We want to produce enough day-old chicks to supply the entire need of our nation, our farmers, and our industry so we are able to produce enough chicken locally to meet the growing demand for chicken,” said Minister Maru.
This visit and meeting planned for April was agreed upon between Minister Maru and the NZ Minister for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing, Forestry, and Trade, Mr. Todd McClay during their meeting on Sunday at the margins of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).