Prime Minister Peter O’Neill confident in growth
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, while addressing delegates of the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference in Port Moresby, stated strongly that despite the recent decline in the country’s exports in the past years the country has managed to overcome a few of the challenges.
He said: "Despite the challenges we have ahead of us, our economy is expected to grow at 9.9% this year, and 4.7% next year.
"Compared to global economic growth that has been forecast by the World Bank and IMF at about 3.3 per cent, this is a very positive growth."
Mr O’Neill said these levels of growth are achievable and that the Government has made the right policy decisions by investing in the sectors which matter the most for private sector growth. He further added that there has been growth in key sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and forestry, in our Micro and Small to Medium Enterprises sector, including business which is also showing confidence.
"However, uncertainty in global markets will remain a concerning factor for the industry and the Government.
"But what we can be certain about and focus on is that, it is going to lead into the future.
"Meanwhile, prices might be subdued, we can be confident the market will rebound at the same time, we simply cannot afford to wait for the global market to improve, we need to be innovative today," he said.
Mr O’Neill stressed that: "Global challenges are not new to PNG. We have dealt with them before and we will deal with the current challenges in a measured but very responsible manner.
"These are the aspirations of our Government and our stakeholders including the landowners."
He said the interest of the landowners must not be overlooked while the need for certainty by the developers is fully understood.
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