Marine park will receive aid from Pacific Islands, China

[Stacey King]

By Natalia Real [e-mail] www.fis.com Friday, July 03, 2009, 04:10 (GMT + 9)

Papua New Guinea's Pacific Island Countries (PIC) neighbours have offered aid in the form of capital and labour in exchange for the establishment, currently underway, of a PGK 803 million (USD 300 million) marine park in the province of Mandang’s Pacific marine industrial zone (PMIZ). According to Minister for Commerce and Industry Gabriel Kapris, preventative measures or “special conditions” must be considered prior to allowing its PIC neighbours to invest in the venture.

Said “special conditions,” currently undisclosed, will look to minimise mishaps and facilitate the remission of profits for the investing nations, and continue to be discussed with PIC leaders regarding the PMIZ at the next Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) meeting. Two weeks ago at the PMIZ groundbreaking ceremony, Kapris announced the amount of capital necessary to implement the project, The National Newspaper reports.

A sub-regional agreement outlining terms and conditions for a regional license permitting tuna purse seine fishing, the Pacific Nauru Agreement (PNA) determined the basis of agreements between the PMIZ's host Papua New Guinea and tuna transporters.

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, PNG, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are all parties to the PNA.

When operating at full capacity, the marine park will offer a wharf and jetty, a fish market, cold storage, ship repair and dry dock facilities, public utilities, civil works, standard factory buildings and wharf houses, service areas, a container depot, residential facilities, schools, supermarkets, government agencies and numerous additional support and auxiliary facilities.

Kapris said the park had already received PGK 29 million (USD 11.2 million) in the budget and an extra PGK 210 million (USD 81.2 million) from the Export Import Bank of China. Moreover, the park counts with development partners that include the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union (EU), the Chinese and Japanese governments and the PNG government.

“I will soon be proceeding to China to finalise the drawdown of that loan so that works could start on the civil works component of the project,” Kapris said.