Papua New Guinea’s enormous and largely untapped natural resources offer excellent investment opportunities.

Coupled with the Government’s positive attitude to foreign investment through the granting of incentives and concessions, and the recognition of the private sector’s important contribution to the economic growth, it is clear why many international companies have invested in Papua New Guinea.

Investment Priorities

The Government places a high priority on the development of mining and petroleum projects even though this sector is relatively well-developed. There are huge opportunities for investors to establish businesses to provide support for the growing number of such large-scale projects.

Some of the priority economic sectors offering investment projects with good potential for investors include:

• Agriculture – production and processing;
• Fisheries;
• Forestry;
• Manufacturing; and,
• Tourism – large and small ventures.

Specific Industries

Some of the specific projects offering good potential for investors (on a joint venture basis) include:

• Poultry farming and processing;
• Processing of spices;
• Coffee production and export;
• Seafood processing and export;
• Food production to replace imported goods;
• Tanneries;
• Timber management/production and export;
• Building materials and furniture production;
• Rubber production;
• Garment and footwear production;
• The manufacture of a wide range of basic necessities (e.g. processed food, paper and wood products, metal and glass products);
• Printing Services; and
• Contractual Cleaning Services.

The Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) has a growing database of local investment opportunities and business proposals which are suitable for foreign investment.

The IPA packages investment proposals for investors who identify markets and demonstrate a capacity to invest. It is an excellent service for investors who have recognised the potential of Papua New Guinea, but whose plans are still in the development stages.

The IPA’s packaging covers all aspects of investment, including the detailing of incentives, land identification and availability, possible changes to rules or regulations in cases where they have an effect of hindering investment in an unreasonable way, sourcing of raw materials, detailing of associated investment opportunities which may develop alongside the main project, and so on.

The IPA has, with the help of consultants, also developed four resource manuals covering the areas of Agriculture and Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Manufacturing. The manuals are part of IPA’s drive to attract investment and trade related opportunties into Papua New Guinea.They are intended as information sources for both foreign and local investors to enable them make informed decisions on business proposals/projects in these four sectors.

Currently, most of the market requirements in Papua New Guinea are satisfied by imports. As the economy expands in concert with the large resource projects, so does the number of opportunities.