The government is ready to partner with viable companies operating in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, said that this partnership will be in the form of government investments in the companies with funding already made available by the government.
“The government this week approved funding, which is already in the budget for this year, of K100million for government to take up shares in companies, in particular in the Special Economic Zones that we feel we need to support to get investment across the line, or bring in much needed capital to start or grow their investment that are important for the country.”
Maru also explained that this funding doesn’t mean that the government will be making investments in all SEZ projects because there could be some projects that would need government funding.
“I want to make it clear to the country that not every SEZ project would require government equity funding, only those that we feel we need to get across the line because the country needs that sector to move or exports to be in place or we need downstream processing. That’s when the government may consider investing in a number of companies using the state equity fund of the government.”
He explained that the government would put the capital as an investor in a company through Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH).
“It’s an investment fund that the government will use for strategic investments that we believe are very important to this country.”
Meanwhile, the first project that the state will invest in going forward in the SEZ space is the massive Rigo Rice project in the Central province.