Former Papua New Guinean minister of finance James Marape was yesterday elected the prime minister and immediately issued a fiery nationalistic address that put foreign resource companies on notice.
Marape threatened foreign logging companies and vowed to “tweak” resource laws that underpin a US$13 billion gas deal with Total and ExxonMobil.
Hours after being elected, Marape told lawmakers that he does “not intend to chase away our investors,” but insisted “our resource laws are outdated,” a clear reference to the huge liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
“Who says one conglomerate from outside will come and tell me I can change the law for my country?” he said. “I have every right to tweak and turn resource laws for my country. We will look into maximizing gain from what God has given this country from all natural resources.”
One of Asia’s most impoverished nations, Papua New Guinea is rich in natural resources, which include large gas fields.
The ExxonMobil and Total Papua LNG project, signed last month, would almost double Papua New Guinea’s gas exports and make the nation a significant global player.
Marape — who comes from energy-rich Hela Province — last month resigned from the government, complaining the spoils of that contract were not equitably distributed.
He also said Papua New Guineans “don’t need” foreign companies operating in the nation’s lucrative timber export sector.
Tighter global logging rules and widespread deforestation in Indonesia have seen loggers — predominantly from China — turn their attention to Papua New Guinea’s extensive forests.
Marape won the landslide backing of lawmakers after weeks of political maneuvering that forced former Papua New Guinean prime minister Peter O’Neill to resign.
His tenure was marked by endemic corruption and chronic underdevelopment in a nation that has increasingly become a venue for US-China rivalry.
The government’s purchase last year of 40 Maseratis to ferry foreign dignitaries around Port Moresby’s few fully paved roads during an APEC summit became emblematic of his time in office.
Marape, 48, said his victory represented power shifting to a new generation and away from O’Neill’s top-down approach to one more suited to the nation’s complex tribal, regional and ethnic politics.
Likening himself to a “choirmaster,” Marape urged members of both parties who backed him in a 101-8 vote to unify.
“Every one of you can sing your part. Some of you will sing the bass parts; some of you will sing the soprano, the alto, the melody,” he said. “Together, we can make the song that our children truly deserve.”
Marape’s tenure could also spell a rocky patch for Papua New Guinea-Australia relations.
He had previously demanded an investigation into “corrupt contracts” with Australia to settle asylum seekers in camps which have “sullied the nation’s image.”
It remains to be seen if his term brings substantive reforms or tinkering around the edges.
Many Papua New Guineans — only 13 percent of whom have access to reliable electricity — will be suspicious Marape’s appointment is little more than musical chairs among the nation’s distant elite.
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