Fisheries
But In East Sepik It’s A Different Story
A multi-million tuna plant to boost economy
Another major impact multi-million kina project has been launched in Papua New Guinea amid the doom and gloom of the country’s struggling economy. East Sepik province is expected to benefit the most from the project. It is a tuna loining plant, launched at the province’s capital, Wewak. Construction work is expected to begin in February.
The major financiers/shareholders of the project are FCF (Taiwan), East Sepik Provincial Government, Bank South Pacific and Jaczon of Netherlands. The project will cost US$21 million (about K100 million). The project will produce cooked tuna meat, which will be exported to markets in Europe and the United States.
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Once in full operation, it is expected to produce 200 tonnes per day. Information prepared on the project indicated that during the construction phase of the factory, 300 workers would be employed. After the full commissioning of the factory in late November, the project operator South Seas Tuna Corporation (SSTC) will recruit 1250 employees to work in the factory.
SSTC will contract 14 foreign owned vessels, which will be catching yellowfin and skipjack tuna outside the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone for the processing plant.
The East Sepik provincial administration and SSTC had jointly identified 39 spin-off business activities in Wewak town.
The project is expected to provide more than K100 million revenue to the national economy. The estimated provincial government revenue will be K20 million per year. All tuna meat will be exported out of Wewak to overseas markets. The project has the full backing of the national government and the East Sepik provincial government. They are doing everything possible to ensure that the eventual operation of the loining plant proceeds as scheduled and ready for commissioning by January 2004.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr Allan Marat said the project “will be a major economic development to be experienced by the people of East Sepik and Papua New Guinea. “As long as I am minister responsible for trade, I will see that this project gets the support necessary to ensure that construction begins in February,” Marat said.
East Sepik Governor, the son of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, Arthur Somare said the plant, which is one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, will definitely kick- start the province’s economy with many activities. “The project will mean that East Sepik will have its power and water system upgraded, and wharf extended to cater for larger vessels entering the port,” Somare said.
Another major fisheries project, the Frabelle (PNG) Tuna Loining Plant, will be built at Lae, Morobe province. Groundbreaking ceremony for the project is planned for February 5. This tuna loining plant is projected to process 20 tonnes of tuna loins per day and gradually move to 100 tonnes per day to reach full capacity.
A cold storage facility and an ice plant built on the same site will also be opened soon.
