PAPUA New Guinea has took over a lucrative Fish deal that Korea wanted to establish in Fiji that would have promoted Fiji’s fishing industry, Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko says.
“We have told the Korean Foreign Affairs Minister to bring it to PNG because we have 15% of the world’s tuna. So, build the fisheries corporation center in PNG where the fish are,” he said.
Mr Tkatchenko said that last week when briefing the media on his trip to South Korea to attend the Korea-Pacific Islands Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Busan Metropolitan, South Korea.
“We met with the Fisheries Minister and foreign affairs Minister to Establish the Ocean and Fisheries Corporation Centre (OFCC) in Port Moresby,” he said.
He said the proposed OFCC would be coordinating relationships between South Korea and the Pacific Islands in the area of buying, selling, and trading fish and marine resources.
“South Koreans are big seafood eaters, they love fresh fish, sea food, it’s part of their natural diet and they want to do more when it comes to buying and trading our marine products. They wanted to set up the corporation center in Fiji, but I interjected because 15% of the world’s tuna comes from Papua New Guinea. I negotiated for them to come to PNG so they have taken off the previous decision to go to Fiji and the center will now be established in Port Moresby. These meetings are not for free riding around but they are to negotiate for the benefit of our country and our people. We have fought to take away from Fiji the OFCC, nothing against our Pacific neighbors but PNG can do it better when it comes to our natural resources,” he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko also announced plans for the re-establishment of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Port Moresby starting next year.
He said KOICA, South Korea’s aid agency which had spent millions of kina throughout the world and the Pacific on many different projects, had closed their office 10 years ago.
