 Good afternoon. Welcome to the headquarters of the Lowy Institute at 31 Bly Street for this special address by the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, the Honourable James Marape. I'm Michael Fully Love, the Executive Director of the Institute. First, let me acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which the Institute stands, the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to their elders past and present. Ladies and gentlemen, Papua New Guinea and Australia are the oldest of friends. The connections between our two countries go back thousands of years with trade in pearls and turtle shells across the Torres Strait. Every Australian school child grows up hearing about the brave men who carried wounded diggers to safety during the brutal fighting along the Kokoda track. Last Thursday, Prime Ministers Marape and Albanese signed a new bilateral security agreement that provides for greater cooperation on policing, cyber security and development. So the relationship is improving and getting closer and a close relationship starts with mutual understanding and mutual understanding starts with listening to one another. In that spirit, it's a pleasure to welcome the Prime Minister here today for his second address to the Institute. James Marape has served as the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea since May 2019. Indeed, when the PM first spoke to the Institute of July of that year, it was his first overseas address as Prime Minister. Mr. Marape has been a member of Parliament since 2007 and has served in a number of key cabinet positions, including as Foreign Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Education. After the Prime Minister delivers his remarks, he'll join me for a conversation on the stage. Prime Minister Marape, let me now invite you to address the Lowy Institute. All right, let me thank Dr. Michael. Thank you very much for the cordial and warm welcome and the hospitality Lowy Institute once again has conferred to me and my delegation. We happy to once again find ourselves in the company of many of you who are profound and deep tinkers and especially within the reach and precinct of this wonderful institution. Let me continue to thank Lowy for being a public policy you and then you spin the public conversations and public policies both not just in Australia but also across the Torres Strait into PNG, the greater Pacific, and I'm happy to be once again back here. Joining you Michael, let me acknowledge the Indigenous and First Nation people on whose land we are here today. We do pay the respects to the elders of past and today as well as the emerging and those who will continue on after. I want to also pay my respect to greater Australia people. Thank you for your continued support to our country. Papua Negini in case the younger generation Australians do not know. Before 1975 we carried the same password. Before 1975 we belonged to the same sovereignty. It was in 1975 that we decided to be two nations, brother and sister nations. It's only 48 years ago since then going 49th year coming up next year. And so it is important for us to maintain rapport, have exchanges, not just at government to government level but more importantly at public service to public service. Our education institutions to education institutions, our business and private sector and Australian business and private sector but more importantly our people to people. And I am happy once again to represent my country and the possibly 12 million plus people of Papua Negini to once again present here in Lowy on the margins of my main streets this morning earlier when I addressed the mining and resource sector conference that is still going on at Sydney Conference Center today. Papua Negini is still emerging as I speak. The last time I was here in 25th of July 2019 my conversation was that we are now writing a new book. We are closing the part of our nation's history especially a history that is attached with complacency and corruption and we're moving into a new phase in our nation's life. And so in as far as the new book is concerned I've lived through the 45th anniversary of our country's independence that coincided with COVID-19 coming out of COVID-19 in the 46th anniversary and we lived through the 47th anniversary and this year we've celebrated 48th anniversary as a sovereign nation. Our nation has emerged through many challenges our past just to give you all some retrospective hindsight in 1975 when we parted ways as sovereignty when Australia granted us independence our economy was sized under five billion kina. So that is your reference point for those of you who in the know-how we were five billion kina economy and if you think that is much you extrapolate that Dr. Michael against a nation that is sized at 462,840 square kilometers of land. You have swamps, you have mountains, you have islands and there you had about 3.5 million people. If you do that then as economists and social planners you would know an economy that is sized at five billion kina with that mountain of obstacle the big land mass big population that was our starting point and if you throw in into the fray the continuous changes of government we had from 1975 up to 2002. The economy at five billion kina in 1975 progressed to an economy of 17 billion kina in 2002. So for 27 years we only shifted the pendulum on the economy growth by just about 12 billion kina. At the same time population was growing much faster and for those of you economists I'm not an economist but you know the basic formula of success in an economy population growth must be below economy growth. Economy growth must be north and population growth must result in as far as the formula is concerned. Historically our economy growth has been below three percent and our population growth has been above three percent. Simply put that was unsustainable. Accessibated by continuous change of government and the instability that exists or that permeated the entire structure of government from 1975 to 2002. If you if you want me to run through how PNZ came in the first 27 years we had general elections at 1977 after Gulf Whitlam were able to give us self-government December 1st 1973 75 September 16 we became independent 77 first general elections 1980 first successful world of no confidence 1982 general elections 1985 world of no confidence successful change of government 1987 general elections 1988 successful world of no confidence 1992 general elections 1995 successful world of no confidence 1997 sand line crisis and an acting prime minister 1997 general elections and 1999 successful world of no confidence when Mekere came in and then 2002 apart from Bougainville crisis that started when we were only 14 years as a nation in 1988 and that ran for 10 years in the same timeline so the first 27 years of our life Dr. Michael we were busy playing politics the sifting sand of our public service that was non-responsive to a stable government and the economic productivity that was quite weak our reliance on one or two mineral sector was closed when Pungono mine closed our non-focus in the diversification of our economy especially winding down on agriculture that used to be traditionally a strong PNG economic base in the 70s that is the backdrop in which we have emerged 2002 if you put that as a reference pointer at a 17 billion Kine economy lucky at the backdrop of political stability the Somalia government had nine full years of being in office and that started that stability gave a focal point in which government was out engaged with investors and at the backdrop of 2008 and nine or 2007 and eight rather global financial crisis we were able to engage Axon mobile in the PNG LNG project and that PNG LNG project if you ask me what became the impetus for the next wave of economy growth that was a stimulant that was the impetus that was the growth basis and from a 17 billion Kine economy in 2002 by 2011 when Somalia government exceeded exceeded with a 44 billion Kine economy and I'm being using average figures here and by 2019 when I took office it was a 79 billion Kine economy but the the worst news was population was still growing and cattle unmanaged 70 80 percent of the population were half educated unengaged semi-skilled and so that was those were the backdrop and the problems we were faced with in 2019 when we took office I just want to encourage everyone that apart from all these sort of bad outlook the greater structure of our society remained consistent our democracy remained vibrant our economy and the fundamentals had every indication of positivity and so we had to just tap into the the positive characters of our country and our economy the number one good character we have is resilient people our people intrinsically friendly culturally they are hospitable welcoming Christians and in the midst of a diversity we find a common ground in things like rugby league and the good side of life the good people combined with the independent functionality of our judiciary remain a big cornerstone of our economy so judiciary remained very independent our politics is robustly democratic government come and government can go but the main fixture of how our democracy prevails is maintained never at one time have our country fallen to the rule of gun or rule of one big man we continue to have even those transitions were taking place they were taking place within the shade of democratic provisions of our country's constitution so the big upside pluses of our national character remained fixed preservation of our democracy vibrant free market economy and society that was deeply Christian and Melanesian tolerant to the difference of opinion and worldviews so we remain fixed when I arrived in 2019 I came here if you forget about everything else that I speak I know loy you have a good registry of all speeches are spoken here so you can easily pick from your file if you pick from your file you would have heard from what we wanted to as a government and you go through them and you have it on record just go through them and see whether we've ticked off icac see whether we're structing better deal from our projects that I've committed to and negotiate see whether we're having a foreign policy outlook that relates to all without compromising our core values and our core principles and our core relationships in my address here that loy on the 25th of july 2019 I just said exactly what we will step out of door today as I speak on icac has been established remember the first time icac was mooted in my country was in the mid 80s seven prime ministers before me never delivered icac I almost lost government at the beg of passing the icac bill in 2020 but right after passing icac one third of my cabinet and fellow politicians decide to move on the other side but by God's grace government was restored and we're still here icacs delivered our focus to ensure that 80% of the public services in rural png and 20% is in the central government is a restructure that is going on our focus to increase public service efficiency has been worked upon few key people appointed based on merit just to name one or two for instance a non-text man but a strong ethical lawyer right now same coin was brought from outside placed in our internal revenue today four years on he's collecting double the size of tax collection with no increase to tax except we've reduced tax for those who earn under 20 000 they don't pay tax anymore in terms of past income tax with no additional increase on tax we have increased collection twice the size on what we were collecting before 2019 so we are committed to increasing efficiency it is still a better a long way to go but we've started the journey and some life changing that is shown in our public service and I sit here with my chief secretary he's a testament to someone brought from outside to come into the public service also we also looked at ensuring that our budget is structured and to carry the economy in tough times we structure budget although we had strong deficit around the time we took over as a government most of you know in 2019 I inherited a economy was in decline and I speak as former finance minister knew exactly what the state of economy in 2018 and 19 was we would on record 2018 3% growth rate we took over that economy in 2019 we restructured but we sailed straight into COVID-19 that saw us increasing our deficit by eight to nine percent in 2020 so that we keep our heads above waters who else didn't Australia did all economies did all countries did they restructured their budgets as a result of COVID-19 shutdown we did but as soon as we hit the highest deficit in 2020 we won a fiscal consolidation to come back to balance budget at the very earliest we hope to hit balance budget by 2027 and my treasurer is quite aggressive I am not aggressive but we inclined to move towards eliminating or bringing down our our debt to a sustainable level in the time we hit the 2030s and that's a work in progress for us so we knew we had to use our budget to ensure we have sufficient liquidity in the economy the last four budgets we've delivered over 101 billion kina spending from 2019 supplementary right till 2023 supplementary that is what we did we're using our budget to ensure we try our very best to spread our love in as far as government care to all sectors and all part of our country our flexible connect png program tries to unravel our economic potentials in all part of our country when Australia grant us independence in 1975 there are only two or three highways that was possible we're working to open up that 462,840 square kilometers of land with key enabling infrastructures thankfully Australia government's still with us they're supporting us with budget support as well as soft consistent landings to key infrastructure ports and and roads to name two important ones I want to also indicate that we're working to reconstruct our foreign relationships without compromising our own key values we relate to all at no compromise to our values and who is who in the space of the individual pathways in our bilateral relationship of concern and we also have other potentials that has not been harnessed before example the green economy space today when I addressed the mining and petroleum conference I said everyone is welcome to operate in Papua New Guinea we still a green economy and someone may ask what do I mean by this it's a simple reflection that our economy has our country rather has a greater propensity for carbon sink than what we are producing right now someone asked me at a conference and someone also asked me in Dubai at the margins of COP28 what is your commitment to to the climate change and I said Papua New Guinea is carbon negative not carbon neutral we are carbon negative country carbon sink propensity is over 100 million metric tons current evidence from Papua New Guinea industry Papua New Guinea people is around 10 million metric tons so all who operate in the economy will have a green identity green label that they operate in a green country and this is something that we are trying to promote in a big way some of you would have seen my work with president Macron on the the step up on our forestry conservation forestry protection our forestation program and sustainable use of our forest resources so that we maintain our green labeling as a country going forward in a world that is conscious of the climate change effect and the mitigations that is running all over the place those have been work we've been trying to do just pick a copy of my speech in in 2019 and I want you all to give me an assessment and honest assessment I will not tell you and go through all the lists of everything we have done but some of the major focus of what we want to do we have started my conversation and getting back better from natural resources someone thought I would be chasing our investors but in the same four years we attracted Newmont for instance the biggest gold mining company in the world came into PNG Newmont Australia's own Telstra the number one company came into PNG we were able to successfully conclude the Santos takeover of oil sets in PNG we were able to allow for PNG government and Baric the second biggest gold company to renegotiate better terms from a zero equity ownership by national government now national government has 36 percent equity in the new Pogra our landowners have 15 percent equity in the new Pogra and the total re-honestly structure of the new Pogra is 51 percent in favor of Papua New Guinea beneficiaries 49 percent to our investors they've read me clearly tell them you don't lose any you don't lose lose a return on investment you invest on your side you make a return on investment we return on invest on our side you go home winning and we go home winning your rate of return on investment will be benchmark against your investments in PA economies and your investment and return on return on investment scales that you are used to in some of your global operations and so the Pogra benchmark is something that is consistent without tech back PNG philosophy without harming investors you win we win but we win on the upside simply on the basis that safety and better work environment is government's business the better we end the more we plow back to law and order and to enabling infrastructure etc etc so we've come close to close to be on on the path in which I envisaged in May 30 2019 when I made my first maiden statement and not all is achieved yet as I speak some big weaknesses that continue to haunt us is the messiveness of a public service sometimes is ineffective and inefficient the lawlessness that remains and permeates in our society the political instability in all structure of of our country and continued exposure to imported inflation and global economy shocks that happen as a result of a war elsewhere or increased oil price elsewhere and also our own sometimes feeble economic fundamentals we have in our country those weaknesses still remain but on the upside PNG remains closer to the market for all our producers we are much much closer than far off most of the nations that have related to a big bias of our producers for instance the People's Republic of China buys over 50 percent of our total produce I gather that they buy 30 percent of Australia's total produce are we in good company in that space and so the market reads for popping in it remains very much closer to home than far away Japan the tad biggest economy within our reach South Korea within our reach Indonesia within our reach India has come on board lately I'm working in the Indian space to ensure we have a readily available supplement or complementary market for our produce in case some market elsewhere is not is we have a problem elsewhere India has stepped up big as an alternate market for our produce and of course we're encouraging USA and Australia we're not just security conscious as we discuss security bring your investments into Papua New Guinea especially investments as we focus on a downstream process diversified economy we're looking forward to a time in the next 10 years Dr. Michael that we make transition from export of raw produce to export of finished produce from our own resources whether it's in gold, copper or minerals or in the renewable resources like agriculture produces forestry produce and fishery produce are those are the directions we are sifting focusing very much on diversifying economy and moving at the very earliest we want to go into downstream processing and our government has put in programs in place in state equity funding available state land accessibility available as well as putting money for SME support that has been continuously run in our effort to diversify and strengthen the economy now why do I speak on the economy I do not want forever to be a borrower I do not want forever to be a recipient of aid and grant Papua New Guinea has emerged as shared leaders in the Pacific we want to share responsibility with Australia to assist in keeping our Pacific safe and keeping our brothers and sisters in the greater Pacific also being assisted we had in the latest Pacific Games our own contribution with Australia we assisted Solomon Islands in the last PIF we were able to retire some commitments of past governments we gave some little money to Cook Island to Tonga for the disaster and to to also one or two other nations that is our shared responsibility with Australia to ensure Pacific remains free Pacific remains a fair place and we keep our pristine and lifestyle for not just ourselves but more importantly our children to come up and so I want to say to each and every one of you here at Lowy thank you for for giving us an opportunity you have to look into our statistics if in the first 44 years the seven predecessors before me work to grow economy from uh at the macroeconomy speaking from a five billion kine economy to a 79 billion kine economy it's not James Marrape speaking but World Bank IMF everyone sees that by next year this time will be 120 billion kine economy and that's a 50 percent double down in just four years five years that's at a macro scale in the next 10 years I'll be lining six projects they all in uh almost mature states Pogra is restarting we've retired all territory obligations Pogra is restarting and Barrick as our operator will be announcing uh the time in which it will be restarting this afternoon if not tomorrow Wafi Goldpool project is a couple of processes away we have delivered what is called a mine development contract and SML back to back for Pogra I've here with me the vice minister the Honourable Jimmy Maladina who assists me in the state negotiations we are MDC and SML away from Wafi Goldpool project which is a five to six billion dollar investment project we've already sequenced Papua LNG FID final investment decision with Pinyang LNG FID back to back there'll be about five six seven years of construction both Papua and Pinyang ExxonMobil tells me there's a bigger gas find they're drilling the deepest drill in what is called the eastern Papuan four belt if those of you know the map of Papua New Guinea if you know Keremah town a little bit not not not west of Keremah town there'll be spotting five kilometers of well into heating what is called Toro or sand basins below that's a I'm not a geologist but they say it's something in that in that something that goes like that to establish whether it's a 30 TCF or a 13 15 TCF or a one TCF of gas their seismic reveal some fine in that space now if that is established we will be sequencing oil and gas for the next 10 to 15 years in terms of construction PhD will be a gas producing nation for the next 40 years to 50 years and we bring our oil and gold and copper projects into the picture we have about five six exciting projects never before in our country's history you have simultaneous projects running in 10 years in a row the next 10 years will be projects of the projects of the projects that should see me hit by 2029 my focus of a 200 billion kidney economy by 2029 and our country should be on its way to be a growth economy in the 2030s I look forward to your continuous uh continuous uh assessment in how we doing business up there I'm not here to buy your support I value constructed criticisms especially when criticisms come with alternates to point us in the right road no one is all knowing any help from any Australian institutions is welcomed especially from blowing with a ton of credibility behind you and your heap of experience everything we say and do in your fair assessment if you feel something else needs to be done we look forward to consider recommendation for myself but I just want to conclude in tough times we have studied the SIP we have structured our public service we put up corruption fighting institutions the assistant also leg up man is giving us lately is to come into the space of making sure we have more judges training more police infusing uh police especially into mid management level with the independence to ensure we prosecute cases that are outstanding for some time this all work in progress to improve the law and order space I see work in the law and order space from an economic spectrum for there is no point increasing the size of economy if the economy is to be ransacked by lawlessness including white collar crimes and so we work in that space to protect the gains from economy and Australia is partnering us lately now in a big way in the law and law and order space and in the internal security I'm working with USA in the external security two difference internal security we're working with Australia and external security we're working with USA and Australians here tax payers don't feel that your tax paying money is wasted you have over 5 000 Australian companies who do business in Papua New Guinea but more than this uh you know you might have canoes coming down seeking refuge in in Australia if PNG is a failed state and so we're working to ensure PNG is not a failed state we are a proud nation we are resilient people we have our own ups and downs but please journey with me I may not be prime minister ten years from today but the but the path we've outlaid is a path to economic independence economic slavery lines a prosperous nation and at the end of the road we stand to assist Australia carry the load in our part of the world as we live together to face an ancient century that faces us thank you very much god bless PM thank you for that interesting and important speech um thank you for the nice things you said about the Lowy Institute and I must say I'm proud of my Pacific team Meg Keen, Mihai Sora, Maho Laval, Jess Collins and others and you're right we're up in up in PNG a lot we love getting up there I love getting up there and it's wonderful to hear a speech about Papua New Guinean self-reliance prosperity security and and burden sharing so thank you very much thank you for referencing your 2019 speech repeatedly we love it when guests refer to our back catalog at the Institute and we'll make sure that the 2019 speech is available on the website so that you all can take up the PM's invitation to mark his progress against it um let me ask you one question about that you you referred to some of the the things that you promised in 2019 and you ticked them off what's the biggest disappointment when you look back at that speech in 2019 when you look back at the the the hopes that you had when you became prime minister what's the biggest the single biggest piece of unfinished business for you do you think I guess it's not unfinished business but it's a slow turnaround time from the public service no one gets the big picture they also engage in the small small picture yeah and that's where political leadership is required to get people to raise their eyes the difference between Australia and PNG is that Australia has a functional public service that is fixed so you can change in between but the work carries on yeah PNG is the converse if you have a boss watching down work gets done if the boss is not watching everyone's caught up in the small picture all right let me I I'm in the I'm going to go to the audience in a minute and give them an opportunity to ask you some questions but I want to you you spoke a lot about um PNG's national development since you became PM you hinted towards the end in particular about some of PNG's international relations but I I'd like to take you there with your permission and ask you a little bit more about those elements first of all you referred to the the security pact that you signed on Thursday with Prime Minister Albanese the way you're you're thinking about it you just said is you're working with Australia more on internal security more with the United States on on external security tell us a bit more about your hopes for this treaty why is it why or for this agreement why is it in PNG's interests well we we have a set interest put it this way you have more Australian companies investing in PNG than anywhere else if you look at the density of Australian investments else outside of Australia so it is in our set interest and we have ramped up our own allocations to the law and justice sector in a big way uh we now at the minimum allocating at around 10 percent just purely to the law and justice sector whether it's judiciary uh believe it or not our national services will get getting smaller locations below 10 million before we took office now we go and pass 100 million allocation to the national services they deal with almost 80 percent of the summary offenses the everyday common criminal offenses so to speak so our allocation to judiciary has stepped up and if I go down this path in allocating to the law justice sector speaking as a planner for my country it will take me 10 to 15 years to get there to a fully functional law and justice sector system now with the partnership with Australia it cuts back that 15 year 10 to 15 year to possibly a five year six year sort of space so I'm wrapping up on my intervention including putting additional judges into into our supreme court and national court judges uh the bans we've amended the law to increase the judge threshold to 200 judges the current 40 judges carry a huge backlog some cases go back as far as 10 years so having more judge more uh I'm almost used to it competent but uh anyway so more judges on the banks in the different space of competency in a modern economy it's no longer just one aspect of reading law and for me especially speaking from an economic perspective we need also judges to read commercial laws and international laws we now have four of the biggest international companies in P&G total ExxonMobil two big in oil and gas Barrick and Newmont the two big in in golden copper and so it is already economy with international big firms we need good judges readers of laws and we passing a law for arbitrations we want to also have arbitration in in our own jurisdiction instead of having arbitrations out in Singapore elsewhere so we're shaping up a modern economy but a modern economy is totally redundant if law reading law enforcement court case management doesn't work so in my interest instead of government waiting to invest 15 years to ramp that sector we want to bridge it get down to five to six years so that I get the law and order sorted out in this decade then waiting to do it in the 2030s all right let me ask you about the the agreement with the United States which is more about international security the defense cooperation agreement or the DCA I know the DCA was quite controversial in some parts of the P&G community why did you think it was important to sign it how do you see the United States as a strategic actor in the region why do you think it's important to keep Washington engaged in the Pacific well same same us has always been around with in our part of the world they are a matter of democracies they are the biggest free market in terms of economy so most of the intrinsic character of P&G whether it's an economic character or public service or government structure similar with USA so some of these core values you you have to align with those who who have a common value to yourself and they haven't come at their own sort of they haven't budgeted into into P&G we work with them we work with them in that space well and so again with the security agreement with Australia and the defense cooperation with USA it's not in their doing but at our invitation similar to the internal security there was a need for us to ensure that we protect our sovereignty we have illegal theft of fish going in our high waters all the time since DCA we have caught 30 illegal fishing boats P&G Navy gets on the US Navy ship get out there and we polish the water satellite imaging that accessibility is something we've never had before so US and our partnership comes in the territorial defense and mind you we're not a small island state we're a big island state our country is bigger than Japan in terms of landmass our country is bigger than Aegean in terms of landmass our country is bigger than UK in terms of landmass so we are a big island state we got more islands in P&G than all the other Pacific island nations put together 600 islands so I need to defend my sovereignty and so it is in that interest that we have US to partner in our sovereignty defense and we are the only Pacific nation that has a sovereignty that is entwined with a Southeast Asian sovereignty so my security needs are totally different from the security needs of Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Samoa my needs are totally peculiar, totally different so the construct of my future is in present hands and cognizant of the fact that I need to secure my external borders as well as work my internal security I've gone to two of my biggest democratic partners with Inuits we are compromising my relations with elsewhere they have maintained but they remain in their own confines and in their own space okay we've been very transparent on this all right well they all appreciate excuse me sorry to interrupt well let me ask you about that your relations with elsewhere as you put it you mentioned the PRC in your speech we know that I think China is P&G's second largest trading partner after Australia you're interested in both sides are interested in signing an FTA can I ask you in the last few years we've seen China deepen its connections across the region on the security side including with Solomon Islands also with Timor-Leste on the on towards Southeast Asia are there any aspects of those efforts on China's part that make you uncomfortable or make other leaders with which you interact uncomfortable I know you say you keep China in a discreet part of your mental map if you like but is there anything that makes you uncomfortable I could not say I've been uncomfortable with the relations we have with China they respect us we respect them I was given a express lane access to both the two of the leaders of China I had P&G was given a unique placement in Beijing the road and belt initiative that included we had a session with the premier and we also had a session with the president and he had 150 nations in attendance so for them to give us a specific time slot for the two one and number two leadership I thought was important but I had in these two meetings two bilateral my ministers and my foreign officials with we stick to the economic space the economic space and I've signed this out to our partners in the west you have to come in the economic space if you don't come in the economic space the greatest threat facing humanity after climate greater than climate change is poverty poverty the gap in poverty must be filled and the west cannot be ignorant to this the economies need to survive market needs to be maintained and China has given us great respect by keeping our students space we've told them before we went to Beijing don't talk security don't talk politics let's talk commerce and trade I taught the president one of the most powerful men on earth was able to honor P&G by sticking to trade they gave commitment to me in the downstream space they've sent in our investor to look into forestry downstream agriculture downstream and fish this downstream they've instructed the only Chinese mining company in P&G Ramon to go nickel downstream in P&G so they're hitting our instruction on downstream and I'm not just here talking about law and order I need investors to work with us in the downstream sector space if you don't come in people are coming to pick up that sector in my economy it's more powerful than just security that's a powerful point and that's the big criticism of of the United States strategy in the pacific and Asia that it's too security focused let me ask you you mentioned the the belton road forum in Beijing that you attended in october of course the previous month you attended the second ever summit between us and pacific leaders in washington can i ask you to reflect on on those two summits it's quite it must have been quite interesting to be in washington and then the following month in Beijing can you reflect on the summits the different vibes the different experiences well i'll answer you this way dr michael the i had a third meeting in washington in san francisco again and this time the chinese president was also in san francisco and he had a four hour bilateral with us president so sometimes we get caught up in the in the politics of two divides ignoring that politics you cannot divide but in the economy you must find synergy and so the miles apart the miles apart and i made reference to poverty earlier on poverty will be the biggest driver to public miles policy mindset poverty alleviation is important and the construct of economies the small passive island states are small in landmass but they're big ocean nations in the ocean are resources fees for instance people invested somewhere in an economy some place must come and capitalize on the modern resource pacific island cell produce and sell back to their own economy there's a huge vacuum in that space and i just i'm using your your your forum here to advocate that we can talk politics we can talk dogma we can talk everything else but if the poverty aspect is not filled in not to age and grant but true sustainable economic focus that space will be filled very quickly by people elsewhere all right you mentioned climate change as well and of course poverty and economic development and climate change are intertwined with each other you attended a meeting in the margins of the cop in Dubai recently the summit is still ongoing and we're getting to the pointy end of that summit what would a successful cop look like from png's perspective and what more would you like to see australia do in relation to climate change well i want to comment australian leadership they are cognizant to the needs that has has been prevalent or is emerging in the pacific their own back their own region so to speak so even under morrisan government and now under al-Banesi government they they're focusing on the aspect of supporting the small islands island countries i'm happy with this i'm happy with this i've been a proponent of desalination of water i've been a proponent of land reclamation and i've been a proponent of our clean energy in the pacific so some of these big funds out there the commitments by big industrialized nations in the first instance the mitigation and adaptation they could assist the small island states were the biggest and well most vulnerable right now should be in order i've never been direct cop attendee simply on a protest note i feel that too much pledges and no one's really stepping out in honoring those commitments i went to dubai to appreciate the friend's leadership we've been working that angle up in an advocate of the forest resource management i sort of had a feeling that no one is serious to shut down the coal plants coal fired power plants is not being shut down all over the world and then the oil and gas business is running energy and and the fuel for energy is really is concerned from these two sources the hydrocarbon sources and so knowing that this will be on for some time my conversation has been let's preserve the natural ecosystem the forest which is a big carbon sink must be preserved and and so that conversation i've been and so that conversation i've been drumming since 2019 my conversation at the united nations france has jumped on board under president macron he's walked two hours with me in the margins of our query up just a little off from the coca-cola track and he's now put his money where his martyrs friends government is giving hundred million dollars to start with forest conservation in one or two areas we will map out our entire country and we want we've committed to preserve 30 percent of our country in his to be maintained in his uh the waging pristine states but we're looking at if we can find enough sponsors we want to expand to 50 percent and beyond those current areas that are currently being harvested we will go into reforestation and uh and hopefully work with the agricultural sector in in in our three crops for our grassland and in the long term we want to maintain our green identity and companies who operate in pnz will have a label of working in a country that is minimal if not negative carbon footprint so that is the big big picture conversation monetizing from our forest conservation those beholders of big carbon footprints that must commensurate their carbon footprint by preserving forests simply put that that is what it's all about all right let me ask one other question then i want to give the audience an opportunity i know there's a lot of rugby league fans in png you mentioned um league in your speech um give us an update on the bid for a png-based rugby league team to play in the nrl how long will it be before you and i can watch a rabbit i was playing port moors bpm i it might be sooner than later but uh we can't pre-empt the process it must be consistent with the nrl nrl bid process and we we don't take a pre-eminent place in in in the bid that will be opening up of course there's a bid for 18th team i did speak to abc earlier asking kindly the those who want to have a compete for the 18th team that there might be always a 19th place and a 20th place coming up we have a important date for ourselves coming in our 50th anniversary of independence in 2025 we want to uh if our bid is successfully processed before that we want an announcement around their time png is the most diverse nation face of planet earth culturally we uh we belong to about 800 different cultures with their own languages religious religion sometimes causes different ways of reading the scriptures so to speak politics causes huge divide but something that is common in our country that unites is rugby league and when the national team is playing everyone sats down and so it is similar to the national mandala strategy of uniting south africa behind rugby union for us it's not just rugby league and sports it is a national cohesiveness and unity strategy in the face of our 50th anniversary coming on in the face of life beyond 50 we want a focal point where the nation comes together bearing a team and so it is really in that order that we we are proposing a team it has been in the in the in the proposal for uh sometime but we will not compromise the independence of the proposed proposal uh it will it will get through nrl on its own strength but of course government supporting but we'll allow the uh proposal to find its own value in the bid that they are putting together but our team possibly is coming up uh you never know 2025 announcement 2027 game time give us enough lead time to prepare the groundwork the school boys nurturing school girls nurturing putting the the financial sponsors behind the team so that your taxpaying dollar or my taxpaying keynote on support but uh have our business case that's something we're trying to look at but it's not just rugby league for us it's a national unity strategy for us all right let me go to the audience uh let me invite you to put your hand up if you'd like to ask a question i'd ask you to keep it to a short question um who would like to ask a question i i'm going to go first of all to my colleague maho lavale from loy institute maho if you could just wait till rachel brings a microphone thank you for a wonderful speech prime minister i was wondering if you could tell us the government's position on bougainville's push for independence right well bougainville he's uh thank you maho bougainville is the greatest challenge facing our country right now we we are a nation of so much diversity and bougainville has been on the table for as long as even before independence there's always been the case of bougainville on their own we've allowed the referendum to go ahead in the united nation supervised the referendum in 2019 we now in the in the leg of the 2001 peace agreement that allows for parliament to rectify the the results we differ a little bit on what they see in terms of what it means by parliament rectifying it and on the pnz government side it means parliament will take a decision in the bougainville side they think that parliament will just affirm the world result but it's different in this it's a constitutional matter the sovereignty is defined by our constitution and there's a constitutional process in unbundling a sovereignty if it needs to happen in that manner so but we will follow the construct of the 2001 peace agreement it is explicit it tells us the path right through after the referendum is taken place how national parliament will have a handle on on the results and what takes place after so the process we run is because i can't preempt the process of national parliament we add the two steps of the national parliament once it comes to the national parliament and parliament will deal with this issue and the 2001 peace agreement explicitly says the national parliament decision is final but we're looking at a win-win situation that we don't offend the aspirations for foolish autonomy and uh they've labeled this as political independence uh i cannot spell this word i'm primus of my country it said this is for me to say one part of my country will be independent but it's a peace process that referendum was born out of a result of a peace process uh part of the peace process we will run this course all the way into the parliament thank you so someone's hand up here yes in the second row thanks very much michael and high prime minister daniel street from the world bank's international finance corporation firstly thank you for your government's strong collaboration with us which we value and thank you for your speech i just want to ask about your remarks relating to economic diversification and advancing that you mentioned uh downstream processing um can you shed light on how you would like to help realize that and and how do you think you'll get there when it comes to propelling economic diversification in the country all right we uh it is a focus uh in right in the horizon for us and uh you would have seen minister maro working the special economic zone concept uh you would have noticed in our budget we have money for land accessibility we have money for state equity to partner those who want to invest in this space we also looking for private sector especially those who have established markets who want to come in and and settle with us produce uh technically something donna land i'm looking at all forest report uh normal runlock export we process in country and export the finished products agricultural likewise uh fisheries likewise that is in a nutshell that is what i mean hopefully copper uh downstream at the earliest uh gold downstream at the earliest uh the chinese company mcc is now being instructed by the top to go nickel downstream in p and z but this cannot happen if my power is not there my water is not there my enabling infrastructure is not that we cognizant of the enabling environment to facilitate an effective downstream processing economy so at the very earliest if we can marry these two create an environment that facilitates downstream processing we want to get there at the very earliest and uh if p and z is developed simply put on the other side for world bankers and high maps and and even australian every other nation if we diversify economy into some sectors and we save our forests from being planted that forest is a global asset we have all of us breathe oxygen i was speaking at stand for the university in 2000 2010 and i spoke on this concept on forest producing oxygen the converse on forest absorbing carbon is forest producing oxygen the greatest commodity on planet earth for humanity humanity and survival is oxygen and not food you need the forest to be preserved we have quite a substantial part of planet earth's tropical rainforest so in that context if we are economically strong elsewhere then we preserve some of the valuable assets we have especially our biodiversity in our forest i'm going to take this lady here on the on the end madam prime minister thank you um for your speech um you've talked about um so much about um all the investments and everything but the law and order in Papua New Guinea is for our mom the biggest thing that's happening right now and um i know australia is supporting to um support with the police and all that lawyers and i mean the judge to help with all that but with um law and order what's what's your prospect in the next two to three years like to combat that with unemployment i think um if there's so many graduands who has no jobs you know at the moment so if there's um jobs um like how are you what's your plan to um provide employment and that yeah thank you thank you all right thank you thank you my sister you would have seen our medium-term development plan four we envisaged to to uh to mobilize over a million Papua New Guinea's some defined jobs from a perspective of eight o'clock to four or six job or seven o'clock five o'clock job i define i define job as productive engagements in the informal case economy when i see the SME space or engagement you citizen we must mobilize a million people in a productive economic sector Papua New Guinea's have something that most indigenous communities have been isolated and uh most people on planet earth in different countries do not have access to the land rights you my sister and me and every one of us still access to our land rights land is bankable land is usable land is a premium asset we're not monetizing that is our people still engage in sufficient lifestyle and not in the case economy migrating one million people into the case economy at the very earliest will ensure we mitigate quickly unengaged and unengaged young people who are half educated or fully educated the job market as it has been in the last 48 years has been growing very very small that's why we need new industries and my conversation on the downstream processing comes into play in the next five to ten years we need to expand out the base with new industries i can build 10 gold mines in in fact i have a the six major projects lined up for the next 10 years but trust me in this one they will not employ 100 000 every year they will to the maximum employ possibly 30 000 only 30 000 our school system is producing over 200 000 attrition every year from great age great 10 great 12 and our universities and colleges and they are part of the number who are restless unengaged out there part of the million we're trying to mobilize so that is in terms of mobilizing to a fixed job incoming job minimal but to an economic activity the opportunity is there to to engage our people so i don't see job creation as just strictly eight to four or six jobs or seven to five o'clock job i see job creation as giving economic opportunities to all to participate and so that's something we want to do at the very earliest you very much correct that law and order remains our number one risk and as i said in my speech my government under my watch have invested substantially to the law and justice sector including putting up independent commission against corruption but in our current budget allocation trend if we want to mitigate law and order it will it will take us up to 15 years of consistent inter allocation resource at this envelope our partners with Australia allow allows us to bridge the time and make that intervention in five years so hopefully in five years you have a better place i might give the last audience question to meg keen from the low institute meg we've talked a lot about internal keen we've talked a lot about internal security and united states and australia but you haven't said much about png's position in the region and as a senior member of the pacific island countries and your vision on how png will play that leadership role going forward as it too matures thank you thank you very much if you had uh prime minister albernesi in parliament when we addressed the press uh on uh tuesday he used a line and i'd like to uh rephrase that line he said we're said regional leaders i think we have emerged to a state where we said a podium in as far as uh regional relations i was concerned and that's the way we are cultivating png to be to ensure that we remain a robust buff of democracy in the in the midst in the face of uh and i was concluding my speech in the face of an asian century i believe in my heart of hearts don't ask me why but the next hundred years uh will be an asian hundred years that's where the combustion of our global economy will take place the country my appetite is big in asia the need for all economies in asia to be sustained at a level is so huge and so i believe they will still be a very big place and uh uh the austral asia pacific png new jordan cannot be standing watching uh if we are standing watching we will be trampled upon and we need to participate we relate without compromising who we are and png stands as buffer to the greater asia and a link into pacific you've experienced that in 1945 when there was an inclusion into our part of the world png was the buffer today we may not and god forbid we don't like to be a physical buffer but in the world of cyber commerce trade ideology png will forever remain as a buffer keeping pacific as a free pacific as a free economy pacific as a clean environment pacific as a nice place and trust me i travel the world i will never compromise living in pacific for other parts of the world i think we live in a beautiful part of my life so that's i said responsibly we want to keep pacific safe pm i'm going to ask you the last question and it's on a similar theme it's it's to go back to the bilateral relationship between australia and png as you mentioned a couple of times in 2025 papanugini celebrates its 50th um the 50th anniversary of its independence from australia which is a tremendous milestone goff witlam once said if history were to obliterate the whole of my public career save my contribution to the independence of a democratic papanugini i should rest content which was a beautiful thing to say i think what what do you think that australian and papanuginian prime ministers should be working together on in the next 50 years what should you you and your successes and mr albinesian's successes be working on in the next 50 years in this bilateral relationship well dr michael if you had my speech i started off by giving you a context of png's a small economy a very small feeble economy in 1975 politically speaking we may have achieved political independence but economically we are still dependent much on the outside world including australia so the construct of an independent economy is something that is very much a big part of my focus since 2019 take back png's all about a better economy uh being in the jump seat in as far as in as far as our economy is concerned so the next 50 years is all about growing our economy together the png's a big economy australia has another place to invest australian firms have another place to invest why going afar of the invest when you traditionally have been investing in us with a strong economy you can just remain and investing us so if you ask me what is the next 50 years i want the next 50 years to be a stronger economy uh png to be a vibrant economy and we totally strong economically to contribute not just uh to png itself but to our pacific brothers and sisters to australia and uh preserve our democracy in the process so that's the construct of the next 50 years gulf widlam gave us political independence he meant well but he left behind highland's highway that was not fully constructed you could not have traveled to medan by road at time here to turn our highway and maggi highway and that that was almost it and our big landmass was worked upon in the last 48 years we still reconstruct the economy and australia and png as we are working together today if we shape up and strengthen my economy that is the greatest that is the greatest contribution we could have done for png and uh look having said this i got no complain for australians they remain our greatest support after this one in time in the 50s and 60s if not in the 40s australia itself were an imaging nation uh you were given the island of papua needed to look after by the british government and so we have no complaint we have no obligations to you you have no obligations to us but as a nation that breathed papua niggini australian taxpayers and government continuously over many many years have stood with us and look we are stuck here forever there's six there's six plate tectonics that that contributes to what png is today i can name all of them but the biggest is the australian plate the australian plate is the one that you are part of your continent that runs half of my country the papua in the southern fold belt is part of the australian plate so right down to the core we are joined together at the heaps and we're here forever so we're here forever you taught us rugby league you brought us missionaries you saved our free free economy you gave us democracy the sovereignty we have today is a construct of australian government the borders we have today is not in the doing of papua and leaders our eastern borders our northern borders our western divide between present-day png and present-day united states a construct of australian government and so in that sad history we have a responsibility to construct a sad future that is our business today well very well said p.m you're right we're stuck here we're stuck here together but it's a nice place to be stuck we're joined to the hip as you said there's a lot of beautiful connections between our country including but not limited to rugby league and the institute is very proud to have hosted you twice of course i've heard you speak in port mausby as well i heard i heard the p.m give a really inspirational speech at the university of pop New Guinea earlier this year on the glass half fall and a glass half empty thank you for returning for a second time we look forward to hosting you again in the future ladies and gentlemen i want to say at the end of this year how proud i am that the p.m is actually the third pacific leader who's spoken to the institute after samours fiamme noemi matta affa and also fiji sitavani rambuca so the pacific remains at the center of the institute's work and at the top of our agenda p.m you've done us a great honor by speaking to us again thank you for giving us your vision for the country and the bilateral relationship and for taking my questions please thank the p.m