By SEPKOLIN WALNE
Chairman of the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) board Dr Lawrence Sause highlighted the authority’s mandate and roles during the SEZA Forum today.
“The SEZA Act was first introduced in Parliament and adopted empowerment in 2019. No work was done in the SEZ space until 2021 when the authority was established,” he said,
“The journey of SEZA and PNG is a very new one. It’s a journey that we started essentially in 2021.
“It’s a journey of trying to make SEZ work, learning from our lessons, learning from the best in the industry, from some other countries and our friends around the region, and making improvements as we go along.”
He added that SEZA had a legal framework for governing and regulating its operations in the country.
“The pillars of the policy framework in the legislation is based on good governance, based on protecting people’s national interest and our sovereign interest,” Dr Sause said.
“It is based on community benefits and sharing on environmental governance and social responsibility, but more fundamentally, SEZ, apart from all of that, are important.
“SEZ in this country is seen as a vehicle for economic growth and providing opportunities for all Papua New Guineans to be gainfully employed in the SEZ space.
“One of those roles and mandate, we develop and implement the policy and regulatory framework in consultation with our partner agencies, especially the Ministry for International Trade and Investment, National Trade Office, IRC, Customs and other partners that we have.”