The success of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG) will depend on a lot of things going forward, but perhaps the most important thing to address in the context of PNG, is landownership. Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru, said land is the most significant thing in the SEZ projects because the landowners will participate and benefit as well from it. Minister Maru said the idea is not just for the state to buy off land from customary landowners, but to have equal participation whereby landowners register their land and get a title that they can use to deal with the provincial or national government to engage with in the SEZ projects. “”I don’t want to see any more land acquired by the state, our people must be settled for their land,” said the minister. “In this year’s budget, the Marape government provided K150million for land mobilization and development.” “We must unlock millions of hectors of customary land in this country to be successful in SEZs and we can’t do SEZs without our people’s lives transformed.” Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso will be talking more on customary land mobilization for SEZs tomorrow in the SEZ Summit in Port Moresby, where more on how the government will be engaging the people and their land for the projects, will be further discussed. Land is a matter of importance and at the heart of every Papua New Guinean and to fully understand and know how the state is going the work on this going forward, is important.