THERE are untapped mutual gains and opportunities in strengthening the bilateral trade and investment relationship with the United Kingdom (UK), Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, says.
He said this during bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart Nigel Huddleston on the sidelines of the recent Commonwealth Trade Ministers meeting in London. Both ministers agreed on the importance of the bilateral trade relationship and building a two-way trade and investment partnership.
“UK has little investment in Papua New Guinea compared to the post-independence era, where there were a few notable businesses operating in PNG,” Maru said.“We need to change that — especially after the signing of the UK-Pacific Trade Agreement in 2019.
“This agreement must be put in operation and PNG has offered to host the first trade committee meeting before the end of this year.“Currently, PNG exports most of its oil palm to the UK, with some coffee and other commodities in negligible volumes.
“We need to bring the UK back into PNG and expand the current trade and investment relationship to include new areas such as investments in energy, petroleum refining, and commercial agriculture.”He said beside trade and investment, strengthening people-to-people links, especially through partnerships between educational institutions, was an area that PNG was keen on exploring.
“The UK education system is one of the best in the world, with many foreign students flocking to UK,” Maru said. “I hope for PNG to partner a UK institution to increase the number of spaces for students from PNG to gain a tertiary education.”
