BCL shares to help
THE State‘s 19.06 equity interest in the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) may end up with the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) if Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has it his way. According to Bougainville President John Momis, Sir Michael has on several occasions discussed with him the question of disposal of the national government shareholding in BCL to the ABG. ―On every occasion the Prime Minister has proposed that the shares should be transferred to the ABG. ―The most recent occasion was in my meeting with him in Port Moresby on November 22, 2010,‖ Mr Momis said. He said this when expressing concern about the lack of official feedback from the national government over ABG‘s request for the prompt review of the pre-independence era Bougainville Copper Agreement. He said since taking over office in June 2010, priority was given to the issue of future mining activities on Bougainville. He said Cabinet had been fully informed about it since efforts were initiated under the former Tanis government which involved organising leaders from the six mining lease areas to be included in the review. Mr Momis said in July this year that he officially wrote to the Prime Minister, prompting him to initiate the review which was officially stipulated under the 2008 memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by former deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu. He said in that letter he requested the national government and Bougainville administration to meet with BCL to begin planning for the review. Mr Momis expressed disappointment that he had not received any official feedback on his initiative, prompting him to write again in mid-November this year on the same matterWhen discussing the lack of response, Mr Momis revealed his discussions with Sir Michael, saying the 76,430,809 shares were the States main tax and dividend revenue source from BCL between 1972 and 1989 ―I welcome and support this proposal from the Prime Minister,‖ he said in relation to the BCL shares.Transferring the shares to the ABG would only be fair. Revenue from the Panguna mine paid for the development of the rest of PNG from 1972 to 1989 but now the situation is different,‖ Mr Momis said.
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