Events Calendar: M es s a ge fr om t he P res ident ELECTED EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. OFFICE BEARERS Contents EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

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1 JANUARY 2016 Events Calendar: * 1st Quarter Meeting Executive Committee Feb 2016* 2016 Meet and Greet Function Wednesday, 3 February Grand Papua Hotel. 6-9 pm M es s a ge fr om t he P res ident Welcome back after the Christmas New Years Break. We look forward to seeing you at the Meet and Greet scheduled for 3 February The Executive Committee would like to invite you and two of your invited guests to attend our Annual Meet and Greet Function. It will be held at the Grand Papua Hotel, Port Moresby commencing at 6.00pm 9 pm Wednesday, 3 rd February The idea of this function is NOT ONLY for you to kick off your businesses in 2016 networking with a group of like minded colleagues, but also for you to bring along two guests who may be potential members of the APNGBC. Drinks and finger food will be served on the Level B1 conference rooms Grand Papua Hotel. Sponsors for this event are CARDNO and ANZ. A representative from each of these organizations will provide an update following a brief welcome address by the President of the APNGBC, Phil Franklin. Please RSVP by no later than Friday 29 January 2016 to: Nalini Nandanhallt or Naomi Stanley via or telephone (details below) with the names of your invited guests. * Early March 2016 Ministerial forum Canberra * 2nd Quarter Meeting Executive Committee April 2016 * 3rd Quarter Meeting Executive Committee August 2016 * 4th Quarter Meeting Executive Committee December 2016 Phil Franklin President 2016 ELECTED EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OFFICE BEARERS President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Phil Franklin Richard Flynn Jonathan Seeto David Guinn Contents EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS James Kruse : Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Mark Baker: ANZ Bank Steve Patrick: Gadens Lawyers Bruce Avenell: American Insurance Group Geoff Toone: Westpac Bank Mark Hitchcock : Rio Tinto Greg Worthington-Eyre: Trukai Industries Andrew Barry : Exxon Mobil PNG Geoff Scahill: Abt JTA Matt Lewis: Hornibrook NGI Ltd EX OFFICIOS Ex Officio : David Knapton Austrade Ex Officio : Bruce Davis Australian High Commissioner SECRETARIAT Corporate Services Manager: Nalini Nandanhallt Accounts Administrator: Naomi Stanley Presidents Report Meet & Greet Function 32nd Australia PNG Business Forum & Trade Expo Media Summary Sponsors Contacts

2 JANUARY 2016 Page 2 PRESIDENTS REPORT QUARTERLY MEETING SCHEDULE APNGBC (PNG) Quarter 1 Wednesday, 3 February 2016 Grand Papua Hotel Quarter 2 Wednesday 2 April 2016 Venue to be confirmed Quarter 3 AGM: Monday 25 July 2016 Venue to be confirmed Quarter 4 Monday 5 December 2015 Venue to be confirmed. MEETING OF BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT ROUND TABLE, PORT MORESBY, MONDAY 7 DECEMBER TVET subcommittee Update No action this month (Xmas break) TB Subcommittee Update No action this month (Xmas Break) PROPOSED MEETING OF SENIOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND OTHERS ON AUSTRALIAN AID, SYDNEY, DATE TO BE DETERMINED There is an arrangement for Australian aid officials to meet with interested executive committee members at the next executive meeting in Sydney19 February Phil Franklin to attend APNGBC PNG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & MEET AND GREET, PORT MORESBY, WEDNESDAY 3 FEBRUARY ed, mail out 6 Jan pm APNGBC Executive Meeting Level B2, Purari room pm Meet and Greet - Venue: Level B1, Grand Papua Hotel confirmed Sponsors CARDNO and ANZ Bank APNGBC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING, SYDNEY, THURSDAY 18 FEBRUARY Phil Franklin to attend POSSIBLE AUSTRALIA PAPUA NEW GUINEA MINISTERIAL FORUM, CANBERRA, WEDNESDAY 2 AND THURSDAY 3 MARCH 2016 (PROVISIONAL DATE TO BE CONFIRMED). Watch this space. 32nd PNG AUSTRALIA BUSINESS FORUM CAIRNS May 2015 (draft program) circulated to all members *mail out 6 Jan 2015.

3 Page 3 APNGBC - PNG Meet and Greet FUNCTION 2016 Your invitation: Dear Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council Members, The Executive Committee would like to invite you and two of your invited guests to attend our Annual Meet and Greet Function. It will be held at the Grand Papua Hotel, Port Moresby commencing at 6.00pm 9 pm Wednesday, 3 rd February The idea of this function is NOT ONLY for you to kick off your businesses in 2016 networking with a group of like minded colleagues, but also to for you to bring along two guests who may be potential members of the APNGBC. Drinks and finger food will be served on the Level B1 conference rooms Grand Papua Hotel. Sponsors for this event are CARDNO and ANZ. A representative from each of these organizations will provide an update following a brief welcome address by the President of the APNGBC, Phil Franklin. Please RSVP by no later than Friday 29 January 2016 to: Nalini Nandanhallt or Naomi Stanley via or telephone (details below) with the names of your invited guests. Kind regards Nalini Nandanhallt Corporate Services Manager Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council (PNG) apngbc@apngbc.org.pg ( P O Box 1621, PORT MORESBY NCD PAPUA NEW GUINEA Tel: Mobile:

4 Page 4 JANUARY nd AUSTRALIA PAPUA NEW GUINEA BUSINESS FORUM AND TRADE EXPO REGISTRATION DETAILS MAY 2016 To download the full brochure for programme outline registration form to attend as a delegate, book a trade booth, place an advertisement, please go to website:

5 Page 5 JANUARY 2016 Bilateral Affairs, Trade & Investment Australia s Foreign Affairs Department has confirmed that its 15 adviser positions in the departments of Finance, Transport, Treasury and Justice in Port Moresby ended last month. Another 18 Australian public servants remained in their advisory position and a few new liaison officer roles were being established to maintain relationships between Papua New Guinea and Australia Government departments. Source: Post Courier, p5, 7/01/16. Australian High Commissioner to PNG Bruce Davis and wife Margaret paid a courtesy visit to the University of Technology in Lae. The visit is Davis s first official engagement outside of POM in his capacity as the new High Commissioner. In a brief meeting with the management, Davis said he was visiting to find out how the Australian Government can greater engage with the university in areas of concern. Source: Post Courier p16, 18/01/16 Exiting Public Enterprises and State Investment Minister Ben Micah is satisfied with achievements in SOE. He highlighted that work had started on some important initiatives as the Government s priorities and these included the establishment of industry regulators for the energy sector and port, the Government s decision to sell of the 50 per cent stake in both Air Niugini Limited and PNG Power Ltd respectively, the establishment of telecommunications infrastructure. We have now gone into setting up a telecommunication infrastructure by negotiating to connect our undersea cable to Vanuatu and onto Fiji in Southern Cross and US, and we are talking about bringing another redundancy undersea cable from Guam into POM and Sydney and these are on the boards, he said. Source: Post Courier, p22, 15/01/16 Papua New Guinea will not sign the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus Agreement to protect its small and vulnerable manufacturing industry. If it does, the country will also lose its K6 billion export market to Australia and New Zealand. Trade Commerce & Industry Minister, Richard Maru s main concern is that PNG s participation in this agreement will kill the already vulnerable local manufacturing industry. Pacer Plus proposals on the trade in goods also threatens the development of local industries. He said that PNG has small manufacturing base industries that are not able to compete with Australia and New Zealand. Mr Maru said he will not sign any trade agreement that will result in the reduction of income derived from the excise of duty because it may result in the wiping out of the struggling manufacturing industries. Source: Post Courier, p21, 15/01/16 Australian politician Warren Entsch MP has said he looks forward to seeing the delivery of relief money to the communities of PNG s treaty villages after being assured the funds are on their way. Mr Entsch is the member for the Far North Queensland electorate of Leichhardt, which is located immediately adjacent to much of the Western Province. He has been working closely with the communities in the treaty villages on a whole range of issues and is regularly referred to as the Member for the Western Province in the Australian Parliament. The treaty village area is suffering badly from the effects of the drought and the tuberculosis outbreak. Source: Post Courier, p15 15/01/16 Health Papua New Guinea faces the risk of an outbreak of the introduced dengue virus which has now hit Daru, Western Province. Already preventive measures have been put in place by the Health Authorities, including awareness programs for the community. Health officials said the fever is spread by the Asian tiger mosquito which has a high resilience rate of surviving and breeding in urban environments. Dengue was confirmed by rapid diagnostic test carried out by the Central Public Health laboratory in Port Moresby. Source: Post Courier, p9, 7/01/16 A clinic and staff quarters funded by the Australian Government for K500,000 will bring health services closer to people in a remote area of Western Highlands. Australian High Commission First Secretary Emily Rainey said the project would benefit women, children and the elderly. The Australian government is please to have partnered with the Western Highlands Mission of the Seventh- Day Adventist Church to bring this much needed service to the people and the onus is now on the locals to look after it. Source: The National, p2, 6/01/2016

6 Page 6 Economic & Infrastructure It comes just a year after the Asian Development Bank had predicted PNG would have the highest growth rate in the world at 21 per cent. Dr Paul Flanagan (ANU) says media reports indicate the Government is facing a cash shortage as low commodity prices cause a drop in expected revenue. In an article in the Australian review, Dr Flanagan stated that the past year has been a year of poor public policy and misfortune for PNG. He said PNG ended the year in crisis management with cash shortages and budget cuts more severe than those in Greece s austerity packages. Businesses are suffering from a lack of foreign exchange to pay for imports and sales are falling. Newspaper stories are increasingly of government cash shortages funding not being paid to meet urgent medical programs such as drug resistant TB, teacher entitlements being deferred, superannuation contributions not being deposited, little being done to deal with the most severe drought since The international ratings agencies of Moody s and Standard and Poor s have moved PNG to a negative watch. At the start of 2015, the Asian Development Bank had predicted PNG would be the fastest growing economy in 2015 with a GDP growth rate of over 21 per cent. So what has gone wrong? The simple answer is to blame international commodity markets, the article said. Source: Post Courier, p7, 7/01/2016. The building resilience to climate change project will be co-funded by the National Government through the Climate Change Development authority and the Asian Development Bank at a total cost of $U27.29 million (K83.9m) in five areas. Under the grant agreement, ADB has agreed to give $US24.5 million (K75.38m), the Government $US2.04 million (K6.28m) as counterpart funding while the balance of $US1 million (K3.08m) will come from the project beneficiaries. Mr Minc said the assistance would help PNG raise its development planning capacity allowing the Government to scale up investments in climate change resilience. He said the project also seeks to conduct climate change and vulnerability assessments and preparing adaptation plans for these vulnerable communities, pilot sustainability fishery eco-systems and food security investments in some target areas and establish a framework for climate resilient infrastructure. In addition, that an early warning system linked to PNG national disaster systems would be improved. Source: Post Courier, p7, 18/1/16 Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davis is impressed with infrastructure development at the Angau Memorial Hospital funded by Canberra. Davis was impressed with the development at Angau which is changing the look of the hospital to meet the demand for medical service. Source: The National, p11, 19/01/16 EFM opens new International Freight HUB Express Freight Management has recently opened a new build, state of the art freight facility in Lae. The facility is adjacent to PNG Ports in Malaita Street, the new designated, International Freight Hub is sited on an 8000m2 block with a 3000m2 tilt slab warehouse, a concrete container pavement with large awning and container stacking yard. This new, specially designed, high bay facility has the benefit of thermos blanket insulation, cross bay ventilation and whirlwind heat extraction. In addition the facility is equipped with the latest cargo handling forklifts, four coffee bulking machines and pallet racking for 1000 pallets, with all operational and clerical staff onsite. The facility has exceeded all statutory approvals and works 24/7 upon customer and cargo demand. Catering for PNG s valuable export and import industries, the International Freight Hub specialises in cargo operations for: Export coffee warehousing and packing. Import CFS/LCL unpacking and warehousing. Export tea, cocoa, general & LCL shipments. Fumigation on site of imports and exports. (Media Release 14 Dec please contact Marisa Howden Marketing manager for enquiries )

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8 WH AT IS TH E AUS TR ALI A P AP U A NE W G U I N E A B US I NE S S COUNC I L? Established in 1980 the Council is a non-profit association of Australia-based businesses with interests in Papua New Guinea. The management of the Council is vested under the constitution in an Executive Committee, headed by a President and three Vice-Presidents, elected at an Annual General Meeting of members. The Council s goals are to advance the interest of Australia business in Papua New Guinea by: 1. increasing trade and investment between Australia and Papua New Guinea; 2. encouraging the further development and expansion of the Papua New Guinea economy; 3. representing Australian business interests to the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments; H O W D OE S THE C O U NC I L AC H IE VE I TS G O ALS? The Council advances Australian business interests in Papua New Guinea through: the holding of trade, investment and information seminars on Papua New Guinea: participation in regular bilateral Ministerial talks to discuss major policy issues of concern to Australian business; submissions to government on policy matters affecting Australian business interests in Papua New Guinea: the receiving and sending of trade and investment delegations between Australia and Papua New Guinea: dissemination to members of information on current economic, political and social developments in Papua New Guinea: PNG PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2016 New Year s Day Friday, 1st January 2016 Good Friday 25th March 2016 Easter Saturday 26th March 2016 Easter Sunday 27th March 2016 Easter Monday 28th March 2016 Queen s Birthday Monday, 13th June 2016 National Remembrance Day Saturday, 23rd July, 2016 National Repentance Day Friday, 26th August 2016 Independence Day Friday, 16th September 2016 Christmas Day Sunday, 25th December 2016 Boxing Day Monday 26th, December 2016 Tuesday 27th, December 2016 (XMAS DAY)PUBLIC HOLIDAY Office closed from Friday, 16 December Sunday 1st January inclusive. Office reopens Monday, 2nd January Have you visited our website? Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council PNG PO Box 1621, Port Moresby NCD Level 2, IPA Haus, Lawes Road, Konedobu Phone: / Mobile: Nalini Nandanhallt Corporate Services Manager Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council (PNG) Tel: Mobile: apngbc@apngbc.org.pg Naomi Stanley Accounts Administrator Tel : Mobile: nstanley@apngbc.org.pg