Three countries have raised concerns that they have been offering visa on arrival for Papua New Guineans while Papua New Guinea (PNG) does not offer their citizens the same. Israel, Indonesia, and the Philippines complained that they were not happy about the frustrations that their citizens were going through to obtain visas to enter PNG.
“These three countries are now offering visa on arrival for Papua New Guineans, and they find it hard to understand why Papua New Guinea is still not offering visa on arrival for their citizens under reciprocal visa agreements,” said the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru.
Minister Maru said that the PNG Government has to sort this out immediately if it was serious about attracting investors to come to PNG.
“If we are serious about business, then the whole world is opening up and offering visa on arrival and PNG needs to do the same if it wants to attract investors. If PNG is serious to attract investors from other countries, then it must no longer continue to make it difficult for investors to arrive in PNG, including tourists. The rest of the world has now moved to giving visa on arrival as a deliberate strategy to attract more investors and tourists. PNG needs to do the same especially when we have agreements with countries to do so under reciprocal visa arrangements,” said Minister Maru.
As an example, the Agreement with Israel was signed in Jerusalem on October 15, 2013, between the Government of the State of Israel and the Government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea to issue visa on arrival for their citizens. Israel had done its part by ratifying the agreement and offering visa on arrival to Papua New Guineans since January 11, 2016, while PNG has not done its part.
“We are now 7 years behind in meeting our obligations under the Agreement with Israel for reciprocal visa on arrival. We need to get our house in order if we want investors. Small things like this can make a big difference in whether investors will come into the country or not. We must realize that PNG is competing with the rest of the world for investment dollars, and we must shape up to attract the investors. We have not been able to attract large scale investors outside of the Mining and Petroleum sector in the last three years. Our biggest need is investment; we need investments to create much needed jobs for our citizens and to create wealth for our citizens and our country,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru is writing to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Justin Tkatchenko to sort out this embarrassing situation for our county as a matter of priority.
