The Papua New Guinea Government is to sell 50% of its shares in PNG Power Limited as it continues its privatisation plans on its enterprises which are facing “problems”.
Public Enterprises and State Investments Minister Ben Micah told the Investment and Infrastructure Summit in Port Moresby yesterday that some State-owned entities such as PNG Power and Air Niugini did not need to be fully-owned by the Government. “We are thinking of offloading 49% (shareholding) in Air Niugini to private sector investors, predominately Papua New Guineans, and this is now going through the process of approval,” Micah said. PNG Power had declared late last month that it was facing a serious insolvency issue, with Bank South Pacific demanding an immediate payment of K10 million to clear an overdraft. Board chairman Larry Andagali said then that the company’s overdraft facility was “getting tough because of the increase in fuel prices”, plus the value of the kina against the US dollar. Micah said fellow Cabinet ministers were trying to work out short, medium and long-term solutions to provide vital services such as power, water, telephones, ports, airports which the private sector depended on the Government for. He said there would be a review “of how these companies have been performing over the last two to three years and how we can find solutions to addressing the short-term problems”. They will have to find medium and long-term solutions which will have opportunities for everyone. “Many of the State-owned companies which are now corporatised and operating under the Companies Act although not performing so well are better off than they were 10 years ago,” he said. “With the growing economy that has been created by the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, I believe the State-owned companies can become vehicles to grow the private sector very quickly through your participation and investment.” He said he was working closely with his Cabinet colleagues on it so that they did not give “confusing signals to landowners, private investors, countries and multilateral agencies that have been our partners for many years”. “We want to create an environment of trust and confidence to prove to people around the world who have got K1 million or K1 billion to invest that Papua New Guinea is their destination,” he said. >>Scholarships for Study Abroad PNG Facts/ The National Comments are closed.
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