Speech
*Check against delivery*
Australia’s support to strengthen PNG’s trade and international investment
Session 4: Building International Trade and Investment
International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Sydney 9 December 2024
I, too, acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and I pay my respects to Elders, past and present.
Minister Maru, it’s great to be speaking alongside you.
Can I say what an honour it is to have Prime Minister Marape here, along with you Minister, and so many Cabinet members.
It speaks to the breadth, depth and substance of our partnership.
Now is a special time in our bilateral relationship.
This year began with Prime Minister Marape’s historic address to the Parliament.
Our Prime Ministers walked side-by-side along the Kokoda Track for Anzac Day.
Seven Australian ministers – one of our most senior delegations ever – travelled to Port Moresby for the 30th Papua New Guinea-Australia Ministerial Forum in June.
There, we agreed to work to increase private sector investment and to progress proposals to improve the attractiveness of PNG’s investment environment.
Next year, Papua New Guinea will celebrate its 50th year of independence, a moment of supreme historical significance…
…marking the birth of Papua New Guinea as a sovereign nation and the start of our bilateral relationship as sovereign equals.
At the centre of our bilateral relationship is the Comprehensive Strategic and Economic Partnership
Underpinned by our Bilateral Investment Treaty, entered into force by our two countries 23 years ago
The Treaty gives us certainty in what can be an unpredictable business environment
Promoting capital flows, while expanding industrial and technical cooperation, with clear laws and a framework for those who invest in PNG and in Australia – including many in this audience.
Attracting and nurturing foreign investment must be an important focus for both our countries. The Treaty and Partnership underpin our flourishing two-way trade – now valued at $6.3 billion.
A trade which is growing substantially, with PNG benefitting from a $648 million trade surplus with Australia.
More than 4,000 Australian companies trade with PNG and our businesses invest more money in PNG than they do in India, Malaysia and Vietnam combined.
Australian businesses have a strong track record as good corporate citizens, they pay tax in Papua New Guinea and are held accountable to high standards.
Australia is also supporting PNG’s companies to grow their exports to Australia and to the region.
Because we recognise – as the people of PNG do – that the country’s path to prosperity is trade and investment.
We are therefore committed to deepening our economic relationship.
To supporting PNG’s pursuit of fiscal and economic stability.
To helping PNG prosper from its natural resource endowments.
Contributing to PNG’s critical infrastructure, which underpins the economy.
And remaining PNG’s largest trading and investment partner.
As resources-based economies, we understand the importance of drawing in investment partners and wealth.
As the world transitions to net-zero, the demand for critical minerals will increase exponentially.
Our countries are well placed to become the reliable and responsible suppliers of the global market.
PNG can make use of its rich reserves of gas, copper and nickel to support nations going through the energy transition.
And our success will depend on our ability to collectively establish and maintain diversified, transparent, and resilient critical minerals supply chains.
Some of you may have heard me speak in the past about Australian infrastructure investment.
As I’ve said, it’s not only about what we invest in, it’s about how we invest.
Australian investment is aligned to the priorities identified by the PNG Government.
It’s about creating high-quality local jobs, delivering prosperity to local communities, and enhancing services to local people.
And it’s about developing the skills of young people, building infrastructure that is sustainably financed and ensuring it is climate-resilient.
Each year Australia spends around $200 million on small-to-medium scale infrastructure such as health centres, schools, solar plants and markets.
Through our Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, we have committed more than $1 billion dollars to developing large-scale critical infrastructure in Papua New Guinea.
$621 million will be invested in port and port assets…
…which are critical to shipping the exports PNG wishes to sell.
$76.3 million will be invested in roads…
…which are critical for providing greater connectivity in Morobe province and other places across the country.
Our AIFFP electrification project – Latim Hauslain – will connect up to 40,000 households, schools and clinics in Lae City and East New Britain to electricity.
In remote communities, like those in Milne Bay, Western, Oro and West Sepik provinces, we have provided more than 25,000 solar home kits so homes, schools and health centres can access the benefits of renewable energy.
We’re spending at least $350 million for climate infrastructure throughout the Pacific region…
…that includes $75 million under the Renew Pacific program that was announced by Minister Chris Bowen at COP29 last month.
We’ve started a biosecurity twinning program between PNG's National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority and Australia’s Department of Agriculture to support export opportunities.
I was pleased to be at the ceremony to celebrate Australia’s refurbishment of a PCR laboratory to enhance biosecurity testing, and this work is underway.
A critical part of the success of any modern economy is the strength of its the digital economy.
Across the Pacific region, Australia has committed more than $350 million in telecommunications infrastructure in the Pacific and Timor-Leste.
We funded the $200 million dollar Coral Sea cable project – which has linked up PNG to Australia and other nations in the Pacific.
With a capacity of 20 terabits – 20,000 times the capacity of the previous PNG system – it provides a fast, reliable and affordable telecommunications service but it is still underutilised and could be delivering more value for PNG.
We know PNG is facing challenges in bringing down wholesale telecommunications prices and increasing access and reliability.
We are here to help – both sharing experience and delivering investment – but fully utilising the cable would be a good first step.
To ensure private sector investment can flourish we are supporting a resilient banking sector.
We are working together on national payments systems infrastructure that would allow commercial banks to talk better with central banks.
And we recently announced $8.6 million to Pacific countries to establish digital identity, in order to make transactions in PNG and other places safer and more reliable.
The big picture is very positive.
We have been supportive of PNG’s successful IMF program and, by the way, the IMF is forecasting solid private investment growth at over 3 per cent per year.
Although reform can be challenging, the ultimate long-term improvements on business conditions and investor confidence are worth it.
Besides our support for PNG’s economic and fiscal reform plans, we will continue to examine new options for trade arrangements between our two countries.
And to explore ways we can cooperate to share the benefits of the growing markets within our dynamic region.
Because free, fair and open international trade, underpinned by the rules-based multilateral trading system, delivers prosperity to our people and our communities.
Friends, the breadth of the Australia-PNG economic relationship is at an unprecedented level.
We are cooperating across so many different areas – labour mobility, youth empowerment, infrastructure, education and health…
...but all of those individual streams, seemingly separate, run together like the tributaries feeding the great Sepik river…
…becoming, like our bilateral relationship, a powerful and irrepressible force.
In 2025, PNG will mark its 50th anniversary of independence.
As Papua New Guinea (PNG) celebrates its 50th year of independence in 2025, the Australian Government will launch ‘Australia now: PNG Edition’, to showcase our special relationship through art, music, dance, film, culture, and sport.
This program of events will highlight PNG and Australia’s longstanding relationship and close cultural connections, including the people, places and history that played an important role in PNG’s self-determination and independence.
Australia now has been delivered in more than 20 countries since 2001 and is the Government’s flagship overseas public diplomacy program.
It aims to showcase the creativity, diversity, and innovative capability of Australia to a chosen country or region, building trade and investment opportunities, as well as strengthening people to people links.
Australia looks forward to celebrating this milestone and our contemporary partnership, and looking ahead to the next 50 years.
Friends, I know we are all deeply committed to strengthening our economic relationship.
We are committed to approaching contemporary opportunities and challenges as equal and sovereign neighbours, supporting each other’s priorities.
Because – and let me finish by quoting what Prime Minister Marape said to the Australia Parliament at the start of this year:
“A strong, economically-empowered Papua New Guinea means a stronger and more secure Australia and Pacific.”
I whole-heartedly agree.
And we look forward to continuing to work together to make that future a reality.
