PNG Urged to Build Economic Resilience Amid Global Shifts

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has called for a renewed national focus on production and productivity as the global economic landscape becomes increasingly unstable.

Marape made the remarks after returning from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, where world leaders discussed rising geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.

“The world today is fragmented,” Marape said.

 PNG Urged to Build Economic Resilience Amid Global Shifts/Photo PM James Marape

He said the global system that had provided relative stability for decades was now being reshaped, creating risks for countries that lacked strong domestic economic foundations.

“The world order that we lived under for the past 50 years is now being affected,” he said. “There is uncertainty about what the future global order will look like.”

Marape said PNG must respond by strengthening sectors that it could control, reducing exposure to external shocks.

“As a nation, we must not be left vulnerable to whatever shape the new world order takes,” he said.

He identified agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining, petroleum and gas, as well as renewable energy development, as areas requiring increased investment and productivity.

“We must ramp up our own production and productivity so that we can withstand the shocks facing the global economy – whether those shocks are man-made or natural,” Marape said.

The Prime Minister said economic ministries must remain focused on lifting output and value-added processing.

“These are sectors that are within our control. Increasing production is the single most important response to an uncertain global outlook,” he said.