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PNG Business PNG

PNG’S FIRST SPECIAL ECONOMIC

ZONE GETS NOD

By Kevin McQuillan structures by end of 2021 and completed within year three.”
“We would like to see the first downstream processing
The PNG government has approved and agreed to provide plants and factories being built around year three to year six
K100m (US$28.5 million) to kick start the country’s first Spe- and completed by year seven to go into production.”
cial Economic Zone, creating up to half a million jobs directly The Minister for Public Service and Kikori MP Soroi Eoe says
and indirectly in the country when it is fully operational. And this investment will be different from all the other projects in
there will be a role for other Pacific nations. the country.
The Ihu Special Economic Zone (ISEZ) is located in Kikori He says the seed funding will also be used for site prepara-
District of Gulf Province, about from 45 minutes by air from tion, social mapping, landowner identification, surveying and
the capital, Port Moresby and is expected to take 10-15 years environmental impact studies.
to complete. KenGemar says the proposed second LNG project, ‘Papua, is
It will consist of a free trade zone, petroleum park with ‘critical’ for the ISEZ, because funding is underpinned by the
petrochemical plan, industrial zone, technology park, forestry infrastructure development grants that will be coming out of
park, marine park, a deep sea port and airport, a township the Papua LNG project.
with hotels and resorts, and a government and administra- Papua LNG will now also provide much needed gas which
tion area, Peter KenGemar, the ISEZ Project Director has told ISEZ plans to capture and feature in the planned petrochemi-
Islands Business. cal plant. These are crucial and important enablers for both
A special economic zone is an area in which the business projects.
and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. ISEZ will provide the space, the concessions and the
These laws encompass investing, a different tax regime (in- infrastructure to make both Papua and the petrochemical
cluding holidays), trading quotas, customs and labour regula- plant economically viable. He says the ISEZ will draw foreign
tions. investment in areas like manufacturing and exports, and the
Kikori District is one of 89 districts in PNG. It hosts 80% of inclusion of processing petrochemicals has produced interest
the discovered but as yet undeveloped proven gas reserves in from around the world.
PNG. It also hosts the second largest forestry acreage in the “We are talking to Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian,
country. And it has 14 major rivers draining into Gulf of Papua, American and Australian companies, we are also talking to
opening up the possibility for hydropower power projects. Kumul Petroleum locally and we hope to close an understand-
The planned ISEZ is ideally located for future development ing very soon,” KenGemar says.
of PNG’s gas industries, including LNG, LPG, power generation He also expects a role for other Pacific nations.
and petrochemicals, says KenGemar. “We know that other Pacific island countries will benefit in
KenGemar says now that approval for the project has been terms of employment for specialist skilled people, supply of
given, work will begin on feasibility studies for the critical raw materials and skills upgrade and training for their work
capital infrastructure projects including a deep sea port, force using ISEZ facilities.”
airport, industrial township, power, water, road networks, and
an industrial park, including a petrochemical plant. editor@islandsbusiness.com
“We would like to see construction of critical capital infra-

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