The Governments of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand are working on strengthening their bilateral relations through a more streamlined outlook on strategic people-to-people initiatives.
Amongst these pertinent initiatives is the Labour Mobility Program that will be a main point of discussion between Papua New Guinea Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko MP and his New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta MP.
Minister Tkatchenko, in an official press conference this morning, said the purpose of the trip is to discuss ways of enhancing the current status of the labour mobility program to include more Papua New Guineans across various industries in the New Zealand market – an objective that mirrors that of Australia.
Minister Tkatchenko added the departments of Labour, Immigration and Foreign Affairs were handling this program and it is anticipated that the quota will increase.
“We will also negotiate with the Victoria University to have diplomacy classes for our Foreign Affairs Department personnel that will greatly improve the standard and professionalism of our country’s Foreign Service.”
“Fifty positions have been made available for our Papua New Guineans to be trained as part of the Foreign Affairs Department.”
“We want to roll that over five years to have about 250 young men and women from being taught in Diplomacy in Victoria University and we are going to finalize that program during this official visit,” Minister Tkatchenko said.
Minister Tkatchenko also highlighted that Regional Security was high on the agenda of discussions.
“New Zealand has always done well in promoting, training and implementing capacity building for our PNG Defence Force and many other avenues so we will be talking about the continuation of our mutual Defence Cooperation as well.”
“We will also be visiting the Papua New Guinea Female Football Team currently in New Zealand for the finals to give them moral support.”
“Four days of activities in Auckland and Wellington, and I will be catching up with our Foreign Minister for New Zealand and we will also have a chance to meet the new Prime Minister of New Zealand Chris Hipkins.”
“From there we will head straight across to Canberra, Australia to the National Parliament for the Ministerial Forum where some of my colleague ministers will be following me there.”
“We will be discussing and finalizing the Bilateral Security Treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea.”
“We will also be discussing, finalizing and getting outcomes for our visa system between Australia and Papua New Guinea.”
“There will also be a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of “Foreign Affairs in Australia and PNG Forestry, besides discussions on areas such as Education, Internal Security, Policing and Defence Force.”
“It’s going to be a very busy but productive trip. I don’t take these trips for nothing, there must be positive outcomes, and it’s about making things happen between our two countries for the long-term benefit of our people in PNG.
“We will continue to strengthen our relationship between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and of course this with Australia. “There will be nine ministers from Australia participating with us in this ministerial forum.”
“These relationships will only be bigger and better after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Official Visit to Papua New Guinea earlier this year.”
“We look forward to these 10 day of official trips with lots of outcomes for the benefit of the people of Papua New Guinea,” Minister Tkatchenko ended.