PNG’s Economy Not at Fault in Grey Listing: Parkop

PNG’s Economy Not at Fault in Grey Listing: Parkop

NCD Governor Powes Parkop has stressed that Papua New Guinea’s placement on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list is not due to mismanagement of the economy, urging the public to remain calm and avoid being swayed by political narratives.
The country was added to the grey list on February 13 alongside Kuwait and over 24 other nations, including Angola, Cameroon, Bolivia, Monaco, and Vietnam. The move has sparked heated discussions about the state of PNG’s financial governance and regulatory frameworks.

Governor Parkop reminded citizens that PNG has faced grey listing before. “It’s not the first time too for PNG to be grey listed. In 2015 we got on the list and were able to get off the list quickly,” he said, highlighting that the current situation can also be addressed with targeted action.
He clarified that the grey listing is strictly related to weaknesses in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, not broader economic mismanagement. “The Opposition has been portraying this as if the Government has committed some cardinal sin in the economy. That’s simply not true,” he said.
Parkop identified weak enforcement, poor inter-agency coordination, and limited supervision of financial institutions as key factors in the FATF designation. He urged government bodies, particularly the Central Bank and the Internal Revenue Commission, to strengthen compliance and supervision. “It just needs us to ramp up inter-agency coordination. It’s absolutely doable,” he added.
The Governor also acknowledged that domestic policy choices contributed to the situation, cautioning against excessive regulatory prescriptions from international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. “We brought this on ourselves… Over-regulation, whether to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, or otherwise, will kill our economy, especially the financial sector,” he warned.
He encouraged the government to use this as an opportunity to reduce reliance on raw mineral exports and import dependency. “The more we continue to depend on imports and exports in crude form, the more vulnerable we make our economy to manipulation by larger economies,” he said. Parkop concluded that while technical compliance gaps exist, they are resolvable through coordinated institutional action rather than political debate.