The country could see in the near future another major sugar production apart from Ramu Sugar in Madang province now that a Thailand company was given the go ahead to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) dedicated to sugar in Abau district, Central province. The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru made the announcement recently regarding this major undertaking in the agriculture sector. Minister Maru announced that Cocoland Sugar Development Limited in Abau will be developed as a Special Economic Zone after he met with the management team from Yaosoeng Sugar and Cane Consultant Company Limited (a Thai company) and the Member for Abau, Sir Puka Temu. The proposal is for a 40, 000-hectare sugar farm, a processing mill, and a power plant following a very successful trial in Abau on the proposed sugar farmland. The plantation will produce 3 million tons of sugar every year with the target market to be Papua New Guinea (PNG) and other countries, especially Indonesia. The project is also expected to create over 20, 000 jobs for Papua New Guineans. “PNG is still importing sugar from Thailand despite the presence of Ramu Sugar in PNG, so we need another large-scale sugar project which will also be good for price competition,” said Minister Maru. Minister Maru said this project will be developed as an SEZ and has the highest Government priority. “We want to open a Diplomatic Mission in Thailand and having this project here in PNG gives us one reason why we should be in Thailand.” “We want to see more Thai companies coming and investing in PNG because there is a lot we can learn from them, and we can get more investments from Thailand,” said the Minister. “If we cannot get this project across the line then we will not have confidence from Thailand investors to come and invest in PNG, especially in large-scale agriculture projects." He also said that this project is important as it is an anchor investment for PNG because it affirms the Government’s decision to open a Diplomatic Mission in Thailand. Minister Maru further added that he will be visiting Abau to see the project site before taking a Submission to the Cabinet to get their approval. “This is very critical because once we have the approval, we can negotiate and sign a State Agreement between the State and the developer.” He said the developer is keen to develop the large-scale sugar mill which will take over two years to construct with the sugarcane farm to cost USD126.01 million and the sugar mill and the power plant to cost USD295.01 million, a total of USD421.03 million. “The investor is happy to fund the project itself or to partner the Government and other partners and wants to commence construction of the mill and the sugar estate this year.”