Picture: PNG LNG Mine

PNG people are poorer but is that despite the big mines - or because of the big mines?

Perhaps a Sovereign Wealth Fund is NOT the answer.

What we need is a new model of development - one that actual respects and follows our National Goals and Development Principles rather than completely ignoring them as we do now... 

Source: PNG Loop

Revenues from past extraction of PNG’s natural resources have failed to impact the lives of the average citizen, the country’s think thank and leading researcher in the Pacific, National Research Institute has revealed.

Director Dr Thomas Webster when launching the Sovereign Wealth Fund Report today in Port Moresby says the average citizen has become poorer as a result of poor management and accountability in the previous SWF projects.

“This experience is instructive for the present debate and the emphasis must be on ensuring that the LNG income stream and revenues from other similar projects transforms positively the lives of the average citizen, both now and into the future.

“The magnitude of the projected revenue from the current PNG LNG project is such that its impact on the macroeconomic stability is critical. Prudent strate-gies aimed at stabilising the plausible macroeconomic consequences from the current and future projects must be packaged into the SWF structure.

He said protecting the purpose and intent of the SWF through the approved management structure is critical.

It has been speculated that the final structure of the SWF Bill is scheduled to be tabled in the coming (October) Parliament session.

Dr Webster said missing from the design of a SWF has been a transparent and wide-ranging debate on its aims and a structure most likely to deliver the intended benefits.

“We are well aware that the PNG LNG has started exporting and proceeds from these sales accruing to PNG need to be deposited responsibly.

“We therefore continue the series of NRI discussions with the view to ensuring that the SWF is properly structured, established and managed,” he said.