TAIWAN’S investment in Papua New Guinea has accelerated over the years, Department of Trade, Commerce and Industry Secretary John Andrias said.
He said based on 2010 figures, Taiwan’s investment stood at US$167 million (K403 million).
Andrias said much of this investment was in the non-extractive sector, including fisheries, agriculture and forestry sectors.
Speaking at a welcome reception for the Taiwanese delegation to PNG for the trade fair on Monday, Andrias said the fair was important for the trade and economic relations of both nations.
Andrias said more opportunities were present for the private sector of both economies to explore.
“It was an opportune time indeed for Taiwan to showcase their advancement in technology for their small-to-medium enterprise sector.
He said the fair was all about how best Taiwanese technology, capital, know-how or expertise, products and services through its various clusters of industries could be used in partnership to downstream processing and add value to the resources in PNG.
This is also to assist PNG’s effort to diversify imports from competing sources, Andrias said.
Taiwan is one of PNG’s major trading partners that included Australia, Japan, USA, and mainland China.
Last year’s statistics showed a trade volume of K99.3 million.
PNG’s export to Taiwan was K30.7 million while imports stood at K68.4 million, showing a trade deficit of K37.7 million.