Contains information about the key sectors in Papua New Guinea (PNG), such as LNG and agriculture, as well as investment opportunities and interviews of important politicians and businesspeople.

Papua New Guinea is poised for change, as the country’s mineral riches are providing a major opportunity for economic development through the exploitation of natural

Papua New Guinea is poised for change, as the country’s mineral riches are providing a major opportunity for economic development through the exploitation of natural resources. The government’s five-year strategic plan focuses on key development enablers such as free education, improvements to health services, the strengthening of law and order, rural development projects and infrastructure construction. Inward investment has increasingly been driven by the extractive sector, including oil and gas, whose share of the country’s total investment stock rose from 71% to 87% between 2004 and 2012. Statistics from the Investment Promotion Authority reveal that the largest share of new foreign direct investment in 2013, some 24.6%, targeted the construction sector, outpacing that in financial services, manufacturing and mining, which accounted for 19.8%, 18.1% and 10.9%, respectively. While minerals and hydrocarbons dominate exports, around 85% of the country’s population is employed in the agriculture sector. The start of liquefied natural gas exports in 2014 is expected to return the current account to a surplus in 2015, forecast as high as 12.1% of GDP before returning to 9.1% the following year. While the outlook for state revenues remains strong in the medium term, ensuring the sustainability of further spending increases will be key to preserving macroeconomic stability.

Papua New Guinea's economic growth has outpaced the majority of economies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific since 2007. Its development challenges, however, remain daunting, and it lags behind other countries in the region in terms of per capita income and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. This raises the question of how the country can make its economic growth high, sustained, inclusive, and broad-based to more effectively improve its population's welfare. This report identifies the critical constraints to these objectives and discusses policy options to help overcome such constraints.

In Papua New Guinea hopes are high that real change is on its way; the country’s political, administrative, financial and technical leaders now have to find a way to ensure the most productive distribution and use of financial resources. Many international actors are watching closely to see how this young country negotiates its path. Papua New Guinea became a major exporter of gas in 2014 when the $19bn PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project was completed ahead of schedule and within budget, significantly increasing the size and strength of the economy. The year ahead is likely to see PNG benefit from the further development of its hydrocarbons sector, fuelling the growth of its economy as a whole. The LNG influx also poses challenges, however, in terms of ensuring inclusive growth and productive use of the new revenues. PNG takes pride in being a final frontier of natural and cultural development, but the task ahead is to protect the country’s heritage while becoming part of the global economy.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a significant role in the economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG), as they do in other Pacific countries. They provide a range of essential services, most notably power, water, telecommunications, and transport that are vital to commerce and to the livelihoods of all communities. The performance of the SOEs therefore has an important impact on PNG's ability to achieve inclusive economic growth. This study benchmarks the performance of PNG's SOEs with those of Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga; assesses the key drivers of this performance; and identifies successful reform strategies that can guide future policy action. Particular attention is given to the legal, regulatory, governance, and monitoring frameworks of each country, given their known impact on the performance of the SOEs.