Rosso urges the US to increase investment in PNG

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, Australian Senator Nita Green, and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso after their bilateral meeting (Image: Supplied)

The Deputy Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, John Rosso, has encouraged the government and businesses in United States of America to invest more in PNG.

Speaking at a dialogue session at the recently concluded inaugural Pacific Investment, Security and Shared Prosperity Summit in Honalulu, Hawaii, Rosso who attended on behalf of Prime Minister James Marape, said the number of American businesses in PNG was low compared to other countries.

The summit brings Pacific leaders together to advance regional investment and security cooperation to support the island nations.

"How many American companies are in Papua New Guinea?

"I can only think of two: ExxonMobil extracting oil, and Newmont extracting gold. He said.

Rosso made these statements during the Economic Priorities and Investment Pathways for the Pacific Dialogue.

He also said that unreliable energy [electricity] is one of the main obstacles to investment in PNG and the Pacific, when speaking on the challenges of economic growth.

"Reliable cheap power can lead to, as an example, increased tourism, an industry which PNG and most of the Pacific depend on, which will result in a variety of spin-off businesses.

"Consistent and dependable electricity also allows us to set up factories for downstream processing in, for example, the fisheries and logging industries. One factory could create 5000 jobs.

"This may be minuscule for America's economy, but for PNG and other Pacific nations, those jobs would lead to GDP growth and make a huge difference to economic development in our countries and the region." Rosso said.

Rosso's remarks reflect the PNG Government's focus on downstream processing rather than raw material export.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, accompanied Rosso to the 2-day summit from February 23 to 24, where they also held bilateral meetings with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, and Australian Senator Nita Green, among other government and business engagements.

Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko (left front) in bilateral meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau (right center) (Image: Supplied)

Rosso said the meetings with Deputy Secretary Landau and other U.S. government and business representatives were warm and productive, and America demonstrated a willingness to be receptive and responsive to PNG's bilateral agenda.