Marape: PNG mourns the untimely death of former Japan's Prime Minister

 Papua New Guinea has joined the world in mourning the untimely death of Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Mr Abe was shot dead while speaking at a political campaign event on Friday in the southern Japanese city of Nara.

Prime Minister James Marape says PNG benefited a lot from Japan when Mr Abe was in office.

Mr Marape says the major projects include the PNG Electrification Partnership signed at the APEC Summit in Port Moresby in 2018, and the Nadzab Airport Development in Morobe.

Mr Marape says PNG and Japan have a strong relationship, and Mr Abe visited PNG in 2014 and for APEC in 2018. Mr Marape says Japan was the first buyer of LNG from PNG in 2014, under Mr Abe's leadership. 

He says Mr Abe strengthened the Pacific Islands Leaders’ Meeting (PALM) process, brought PNG into the G7, and strengthened PNG's role in APEC. 

Mr Marape says Japan has been supporting PNG in infrastructure development and maintenance, education and medical care, cooperation for the improvement of agriculture and other sectors, and cooperation for improvement of the sewage disposal system and forest preservation.  

Mr Marape says Japan assisted PNG during COVID-19 and a K1 billion concessional loan in 2021, which helped PNG finance the 2021 National Budget, repay debts and stabilise the economy.

Source: NBC News/One PNG News

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