PAPUA New Guinea currently has only four licensed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) including the Paga Hill, Sea Park, Pacific Lime and Cement, and the PNG Trade Centre.
International Trade and Investment Minister Richard Maru said: “Four others have been approved in principle by the National Executive Council (NEC) but are not considered SEZs because they have not yet applied for and received licences from the regulator, the SEZ Authority (Seza).
“They include the Portside Gardens SEZ, the Lae Port SEZ, Caution Bay SEZ, and the Finschhafen Integrated SEZ.”
Maru clarified that the Seza would only issue licences subject to the project ticking off all requirements including secured State land, availability of utilities, proving to have the funds to develop the SEZ, and others.
He called on the management and developers of these four SEZs to apply for their SEZ licences so their locators could benefit from the SEZ incentives offered by the Government.
“You cannot market yourselves as SEZs yet until you get a licence,” he said.
“I am very disappointed that PNG Ports and the Kumul Consolidated Holdings have not applied for the licences for the Lae Port SEZ and the Portside Gardens SEZ despite concept approvals and our encouragement.
“We already have investors interested to be located within these two SEZs.”
In the meantime, Maru confirmed that six more proposed SEZs were being processed.
He said that it was mind-blowing to visit Shenzhen in China with Prime Minister James Marape last week.
“Shenzhen was declared an SEZ in 1980, transforming once a fishing village to a vibrant metropolis with a population of 20 million people, and now the world’s top technology cluster,” he said.
Maru said the Government would push ahead on the SEZ because “we see it as the main employer and driver of sustained economic growth into the future”.
