The Director for Pacific Islands Centre in Japan, Mr. Ryuzo Saito is calling on the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to sort out important lingering trade issues hindering Japanese business, investment, and tourism interest in PNG.
Mr. Saito raised this in his meeting with the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, and delegation in Tokyo, Japan.
Mr. Saito said that Japanese businesses and tourists were keen to visit, to do business and invest in PNG, however, PNG has let itself down by not sorting out trade issues that have been talked about for a long time.
The four critical issues that Mr. Saito raised were:
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Visa on Arrival for Japanese standard passport holders. This arrangement existed prior to COVID. However, since COVID, the arrangement was temporarily halted and is yet to be uplifted by PNG immigration and Citizenship Authority.
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The need for Air Niugini to resume direct flights from Port Moresby to Narita, Tokyo, for ease of connectivity.
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Remittance of foreign currency. The foreign exchange and regulations by the Bank of Papua New Guinea is not giving priority to the repatriation of dividends that delay the remittance of profits back to Japan.
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Security (law-and-order issues).
Minister Maru, in response, thanked Mr. Saito for his frankness in relaying the concerns of the Japanese businesses and tourists.
“As the Minister for International Trade and Investment, I support this call. If we want to increase two-way trade with Japan, we need to sort out these issues immediately, which have been lingering for a long time. We need to get our act together.
I will raise all these issues with the Government to have them resolved so we can see more trade and tourism inflows into PNG from Japan. I am working with the Prime Minister, James Marape, to get Air Niugini to resume flights to Narita this year,” Minister Maru emphasized the significance of Japan’s relationship to PNG.
He said Japan is PNG’s second largest trading partner and an important development partner.
“I want to thank the Japanese Government and people for their continuous assistance towards PNG’s development aspirations,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru also met with the Director General of Energy Solutions Finance Department of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Mr. Manabu Kato. JBIC recently provided US$1.8 billion loan for the first PNG LNG Project.
Minister Maru extended an invitation to JBIC to speak at the upcoming 2nd PNG SEZ Summit that will be hosted in Port Moresby from August 31st to September 3rd, 2025.
JBIC in response said they were keen to attend to market their products and services in the various sectors that they could co-fund as a semi-commercial lending agency.
JBIC said that they are very keen on more business in PNG and are very grateful for the invitation to speak at the Summit.