http://www.pngindustrynews.net/...toryid=2492693§ionsource=s0Ron Berryman
Thursday, 1 December 2011
PAPUA New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill told a Port Moresby mining seminar legislation would be introduced next week to establish a sovereign wealth fund to take advantage of the country's resources windfall.
PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.
"PNG's mining and petroleum sectors have been the most aggressive drivers of our nation's economic fortune for almost a decade now and our government acknowledges the sector's contribution towards stabilising and growing our economy since the economic meltdown in the early 1990s," he said.
"We expect a strong performance in this sector will prevail over this decade and beyond and with such a promising expectation of revenue, our government is now moving to establish a sovereign wealth fund.
"This action demonstrates the government's deliberate resolve to making sure the nation's wealth shall not be influenced by 'greedy politicians'.
“Our nation has missed out on many opportunities in the past."
However, the prime minister appeared to contradict himself and his mining minister when he said: "There is no desire from the government to review existing frameworks".
The statement is totally at odds with Mining Minister Byron Chan's speech in which he outlined a major exercise being undertaken by the government which "is a review of the mineral policy, this includes the Mining Act 1992, the Mining Safety Act 1977 and the mineral policy of PNG and the development of offshore mining policy".
O'Neill said his government would not tolerate situations that would "create PNG as an undesirable or risky investment situation".
However, he alluded to the landowner situation and said the government was committed to accommodating demands "within existing provisions of the legislation".
"No one should ever have the illusion or expectation to come here without giving back a fair value to Papua New Guinea," he said.
"Having said that, let me reassure you that our government is committed to fast-tracking many of the processes that enable start-up of new ventures awaiting regulatory clearance and licensing approvals."
Chan said the review to existing legislation would be aimed at making PNG internationally competitive and reduce processing timeframes.
Other areas which would come under consideration included a mine waste management policy; a mine closure policy; a geothermal policy; a coal seam methane policy; a royalty policy; an involuntary relocation policy; and social impact assessment guidelines.
"The government is aware of the sensitivity of the mineral ownership issue," he told the seminar.
"We will look at giving our people greater participation in the development and exploitation of our mineral resources to ensure equal and fair distribution to all citizens of PNG.
"The government is well aware that the real issue is transparency and accountability."
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