PNG Has Unlimited Investment Opportunities: Minister Maru

Brisbane, Australia, August 12, 2025- As we celebrate our country’s golden jubilee, we, as a country have undertaken a serious review of our economic progress over the last 50 years and we are frankly not happy with our economic performance.

This statement was made by the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, in his opening address yesterday to the delegates who had gathered for the 13th Business Advantage Papua New Guinea (PNG) Investment Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Minister Maru gave an honest review of PNG’s economic performance in the last 50 years and the path to economic independence.

“Our GDP is only US$32 billion when other countries like Singapore (over US$501 billion), New Zealand (over US$252 billion), Japan (over US$4 trillion) and the Philippines (about US437 billion) who are less endowed with resources and smaller than PNG in terms of land size have done very well economically in the last 50 years. Our biggest failure since independence has been our inability to grow our economy and being able to generate revenue inflows and employment and business opportunities that our current population of over 10 million needs. That is why we have serious challenges including issues with cash flow, law and order, a declining kina, and we are running out of forex when we have eight resource projects in operation. These now demands us to come up with new policies and strategies, make the tough decisions, and formulate a new roadmap to lead us into economic independence by 2032,” said Minister Maru.

Minister Maru said PNG’s economy had the potential to grow despite the challenges.

“We have learnt our lessons over the last 50 years and we will not keep doing business the same way. We are using Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as our main vehicle to transform our economy with four SEZs already licensed and seven more to be licensed before the end of this year. We will go into downstream processing and value adding all our resources, replacing all imports that we can produce domestically like rice and cement, and growing our exports. We also have seven new resource projects in the pipeline that will be coming on line in the next 10 years. We have a very exciting journey ahead of us and PNG will be a very exciting and attractive investment destination despite our challenges. To our investors who are already investing in PNG, you need to stay put and invest in growing your businesses because the next 20 years will be the most exciting times in PNG's economic development. You have been with us in the difficult times and are assured of better times ahead of us. To those who wish to invest in PNG, first mover advantage is important - make your move now when the opportunities are here,” said Minister Maru.

Minister Maru said the Marape-Rosso Government will be aggressive and deliberate in attracting major investments.

“We have realized that we are competing with the rest of the world for the same investment dollars, hence, we are offering incentives within our SEZs for investments that will create the much-needed jobs, generate wealth, replace imports and value add our resources.  We are also insisting on Air Service Agreements with a number of countries for their airlines to arrive in PNG, starting with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Emirates to start arriving this year. We want to complement this with offering visa on-arrival. We have also established Trade Commission Service with already Honorary Trade Commissioners appointed to Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. We are also working on entering into Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with countries like the UAE, New Zealand, China and Japan to secure free market access for our goods,” said Minister Maru.

“It is significant that we open up our market access, bring down the cost of doing business, create competition, improve our law and order, unlock our customary land for investments, solve our power problems by bringing in more independent power producers, and provide visa on-arrival for more tourism and business inflows. Meanwhile, we are building and maintaining more roads under the Connect PNG Program with priority given to roads that have high economic values,” he said.

“We are making a new start and charting a new course to unlock our unlimited opportunities to be an economic powerhouse and a very prosperous nation given our vast natural endowments. It has taken us 50 years to get here, but we are now awake, we have learnt and we are ready to make the tough calls including changing our resource laws to go into production sharing. Our focus will be on replacing imports, downstream processing, starting new industries and growing industries like oil palm to increase exports,” added Minister Maru.

Minister Maru further invited potential investors to attend the upcoming 2nd PNG SEZs Summit that will be hosted in Port Moresby from August 31st to September 3rd as it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the investment opportunities in PNG, establish new partnerships and canvas new and exciting business opportunities.

Ends…//

Approved for Release

Hon. Richard Maru, BTech, MBA, OBE, MP

Minister for International Trade & Investment

Fifty years after independence, Papua New Guinea (PNG) remains one of the world’s poorest countries

Persistent poverty, weak infrastructure, and limited access to essential services continue to undermine development progress.

The IMF projects PNG’s nominal GDP to reach $31 billion in 2025. “Papua New Guinea’s economic outlook remains positive. Growth is expected to increase to 4.7 percent in 2025 from an estimated 3.8 percent in 2024 Nir Klein, IMF mission chief for PNG supported by the resumption of activities at the Porgera gold mine and improvements in access to foreign exchange.

However, these gains have yet to improve living standards for most citizens.

Poverty is widespread according to UNICEF report, with over 34 percent of the population living below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day. Rural poverty exceeds 40 percent, compared to 27 percent in urban areas. Most Papua New Guineans depend on subsistence agriculture, which suffers from low productivity due to inadequate training and poor infrastructure.

Access to electricity covers only about 20 percent of the population, and just 19 percent have safe drinking water. World Bank reported worsening education outcomes, with 72 percent of Grade 5 students unable to read age-appropriate texts. Health infrastructure is underdeveloped, contributing to malnutrition where nearly half of children under five are stunted. Youth unemployment remains high, with many young people neither in education nor employment.

PNG’s economy heavily relies on extractive industries, which account for over 70 percent of export earnings but employ only a small fraction of the workforce. The reopening of the Porgera gold mine and progress on major projects like Papua LNG and P’nyang gas developments offer growth potential but remain vulnerable to commodity price swings and infrastructure bottlenecks.

Foreign exchange shortages, power disruptions, and civil unrest, including the January 2024 riots in Port Moresby, have dampened business confidence as reported by local media. Inflation remains elevated at around 5.5 percent, driven by exchange rate depreciation and rising food and fuel costs.

Inequality persists, with wealth concentrated among political elites and urban centers while rural communities remain marginalized. The government’s Medium-Term Development Plan IV aims to improve infrastructure, social services, and stimulate private sector growth, but implementation challenges remain.

Despite these challenges, Prime Minister James Marape remains optimistic: “Our country’s challenges remain significant, but we can overcome them if we work together.”

PNG’s journey over 50 years has seen modest growth overshadowed by deep social challenges. Recent developments offer cautious hope, but turning economic gains into broad social progress remains the nation’s greatest challenge.