PNG's Kandrian-Gloucester District to lead in boat manufacturing

KANDRIAN-Gloucester in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea  will be a major player in manufacturing and distribution of fiber glass boats in the country and the Pacific region. This was made possible through the signing of a joint venture partnership between the district and Stoneworks Specialist International Corporation at the Parliament house on last Thursday.

Only in his first term local Member Joseph Lelang has continued to deliver much needed services to his people and the signing with this biggest fiber boat manufacturer and distribution company based in the Philippines is another big step for the Kandrian-Gloucester people and PNG as a whole. Two factories for fiber glass will be erected here in Port Moresby and the other in Kandrian-Gloucester. Work would begin next month.

 “If it wasn’t for Joseph Lelang, we would not have considered this joint venture or come and invested here, but we saw that he has his heart for his people and the country’s economy and that convinced us as we were of the same vision in which he had,” chairman and CEO of Stoneworks Specialist International, Marilyn G. Ong said. In welcoming Ong, Mr Lelang said the event marked an important occasion where the district will be facilitating foreign direct investment into PNG through the joint venture. “I think we have not put our country’s physical frame work on the discussion table and they are fully aware of what our tax laws of our investment policy guidelines are,” Mr Lelang said. “They are willing to come and invest in this existing frame work, and I think that’s very important because this form of investment does not lead to deterioration in our tax base and our tax revenue base and I think that’s important,

 “Many investments we see in the country are always puting out physical taxation frame works and we negotiate and we give them free tax holidays and all these kind of things, which is not good for PNG. “At the end of day the country’s tax base continues to deteriorate and what revenue do we have, that we are going to use to fund basic services in our country because we simply don’t have money. “This kind of investment with Stonework is a very good form of  bringing foreign direct investment and also creating job opportunities in this kind of joint venture partnership,” Mr Lelang said. Post Courier/ PNG Today