Comments

Good report, wantoks. The ADB is corrupt to the core. The MPs' family being involved in the project is no small matter. Wonder why nothing of benefit to is being seen in Honiara. The people should not accept this kind of direct pressure being imposed by the minister on technical people to accept a substandard quote.

Hi Amanda, Thanks for your team's ongoing analysis. You mention that "Starlink was given a licence in PNG in January 2024." Unfortunately, the Ombudsman Commission has appealed this decision to the courts. See https://www.thenational.com.pg/review-for-ocs-starlink-decision/. Regards, Stephen

Happy New Year to the authors and thanks for the analysis. In looking at the 3 figures provided, my sense is that the article's title of price stability applies to Vodafone, but does not apply to Digicel or Telikom. Looking at the Digicel graph, which is still the most important for Papua New Guineans as Digicel has well over half the market, it appears that there were major price reductions in April 2024. Specifically, the 1 day plan appears to have dropped by a massive 70%, from about 1 Toea per megabyte down to about 0.3 Toea. Similarly, there appears to have been a major reduction in the 30 day plan of around 50%, and a reduction, although smaller, in the 7 day plan. The Telikom story in 2024 appears somewhat mixed with price stability for 1 and 7 day plans, an increase for 3 day plans, and a reduction in 30 day plans of about 25%. Overall, given Digicel's market dominance, it appears that they shifted much more closely to the highly competitive Vodafone rates with massive reductions in prices. Although not captured by the research, it appears that Vodafone is successfully capturing market share from Digicel, which in itself also lowers the average internet cost. The National Statistics Office reports an overall drop in prepaid telephone services of 24.1% between June 2023 and June 2024 (Table 7 in its quarterly CPI release). Based on the major falls in Digicel's prices over this period, this number appears credible. My heading for the article would have been "Vodafone's entry forces Digicel to drop internet prices again in 2024".

Thank you for this blog post, which I read with interest. A friend of mine who's on Karkar Island in Madang Province of Papua New Guinea mentioned to me recently that farmers there are engaging in a project that has given them cocoa seedlings (or perhaps it was seeds). This blog post gives me hope for the farmers in Madang Province. Amanda

Great article. "Professions represented include administration, education, nursing, forestry, engineering, banking and finance, retail, logistics, mining, and law".... these are industries. "Professions" should be engineers, doctors, nurses, etc. Australia PEV compared to NZ, the latter is more organised. Organised in sense that applicants can actually upload CVs and profiles. This makes it easier.

Hi Natasha, Thank you for your insightful piece — it's important for all parties involved to take note of your observations. While the entire process could have been facilitated more effectively, I believe that some individuals managed to navigate it. The information you've diligently gathered should help improve the process moving forward. In my case, we have met all the requirements (including the additional requirements immigration requested from my family) and my spouse was suppoused to start work on December 16th. After several follow-ups with immigration and requests for them to expedite the visa grant process at the earliest opportunity, we are still waiting. All of our documentation was submitted well before the end of November, so the delay has become a significant concern. Following three phone calls with immigration, we were advised that our application is with the processing team and to regularly check our immigration account and emails; however, we have not received any updates. This prolonged wait has caused considerable uncertainty and stress for the family. We are also hopeful that the employer does not terminate the contract because of this delay. Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience after reading your article.

Thank you Ben Sesinu. We really hope this article will help in some ways to improve the current situation in Port Moresby.

Hi Stephen, I think this issue of forex is being over-complicated. The most simple way to relieve our our current forex backlog is to review all the agreements we have signed with foreign resource companies operating in our country to re-negotiate and have them bring in forex into the country from their offshore accounts and not keep everything overseas as is currently the practice. This is the simplest and fastest way to relieve our forex issue(s) as these foreign mutinationals are dealing with hundreds of millions and even billions! Wouldn't you agree?

Largely true and a mostly useful comparison!

Well predicted, eagerly awaiting a new piece on the Salwai Government especially after the structural promises of the National Referendum ..

Than you Natasha for this insightful information, thankfully there is a second draw on the 6th of January 2025, PNG has been granted an additional 165 PEV. For those who have been selected in the initial first draw and have not met the requirements exceeding the 28 days grace period, are their spaces will also be available for the second draw?

very interesting