Minister Maru welcomes planned Swedish investment in PNG

The Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, has welcomed the decision of a Swedish company, Epiroc, for a potential long-term investment in Papua New Guinea with a particular focus on the mining sector, downstream processing and the development and skilling of PNG workforce in the area of engineering.

The Minister met with Epiroc’s Business Development Manager, Kent Howlett, and Business Sweden’s Trade Commissioner to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Martin Ekberg, on the margins of the PNG Investment Week in Sydney this morning.

“Epiroc provides equipment, tools and services for the mining, infrastructure, and natural resources industries and they develop and sell a range of products including drill rigs, rock excavation and construction equipment and underground loaders.

"They operate globally, serving customers in around 150 countries and operating in 36 countries. We welcome their plan to establish their operations in PNG. Our government will go all out to support them,” Minister Maru confirmed.

The Minister encouraged Epiroc to consider setting up their operations including storage, warehouse and training facilities at the proposed Lae Port Special Economic Zone in Morobe Province.

“Epiroc is currently supplying and supporting the mining sector in PNG by providing equipment, service, and automation/digital solutions through its Australian operations.

"They want to move the bulk of their Australian operations to PNG so they can continue to supply and support our major operators including OK Tedi, K92 Mine, Porgera, Harmony and Newmont out of PNG instead of from Australia.

"This will create employment opportunities for our citizens and skill transfer through partnerships with National Polytechnic Institute of PNG and the PNG University of Technology. I have encouraged them to also consider entering into a Joint Venture with all the mining landowner companies so their operations will also benefit the landowners,” he said.

Epiroc would be formally submitting a letter to the Government of PNG on their decision to invest in PNG.

It was also agreed during the meeting for a high-level meeting to be held between the Governments of Sweden and PNG to establish Government-to-Government relationship and to discuss investment opportunities in PNG for Sweden investors, scholarship opportunities for PNG students to study especially engineering courses in Sweden, and to discuss a possible Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries.