Friend in need
▶ Papua New Guinea’s envoy hails China’s help in developing economy
Papua New Guinea (PNG) welcomes China’s aid that helps develop its infrastructure and economy, the Pacific nation’s ambassador to China told the Global Times.
“It’s a good thing that China is assisting PNG. There is more funding available now for us to fund our infrastructure projects, to assist our economy so that in the end we can improve the lives of our people,” Christopher Siaoa Mero said.
He added that PNG has benefited from the membership of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and also the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) which is helping the island nation develop its economy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a bylined article in PNG newspapers on Wednesday that China will encourage the active participation of Pacific island countries in the BRI based on their own national conditions, strengths and development strategies.
Xi arrived in Port Moresby, capital city of PNG on Thursday, and will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting there on Saturday and Sunday.
According to Mero, China’s growing presence in the region helps the Pacific island countries boost their economy and build better infrastructure to benefit their people. He shrugged off criticism that China is making use of its influence to infiltrate the Pacific, emphasizing that they “don’t consider China as a threat” in the region.
Visible improvement
In 2014, President Xi went to the Pacific island countries for the first time. At the time, he announced a new policy of enhancing relations with the Pacific island countries from normal bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.
“As a result of that, China is becoming more and more involved in assisting the small Pacific island countries to develop their economies. It assists especially in building infrastructure,” Mero said.
Currently, about 3,500 Chinese enterprises – from small-scale companies to large multinationals – operate in PNG.
Mero noted that the building of infrastructure is important for the PNG. “If you go to remote places in our country, they still lead a traditional way of life that could have existed 50 years before. We need to provide infrastructure to link our villages to urban areas and provide services to our people in the rural areas. China is helping us do that, to build roads to these places so that they can access health facilities, education facilities and so on, improving their way of life,” he said. He added that these Chinese companies can also provide employment opportunities for people in the PNG.
Bilateral trade between China and the PNG was up 24.4 percent year-onyear to $2.84 billion in 2017. China’s investment in the PNG reached $3.04 billion as of October, International Business Daily reported.
According to Mero, China and Australia are not competing in PNG.
The assistance that China and Australia give to the PNG is in different sectors. China’s assistance is more concentrated in the area of infrastructure, while Australia’s assistance is meant more for the social and economic sectors, he said.
“We can see what China is doing in PNG because we see new bridges, airports and physical structures. While for the Australian aid to us, it is concentrated in the social and economic sectors. They cover areas like AIDS prevention programs, education, human rights issues, justice, women’s empowerment and women’s involvement in politics and so on,” Mero explained.
“Maybe Australia cannot provide that level of funding for infrastructure projects in the Pacific, but China can, because it has the capacity,” he added.
Mero shrugged off the “debt trap” allegation by some Western countries and media outlets. He said no such thing had happened in his country.
According to him, the PNG has a ceiling on how much money they can borrow. It will be illegal to go beyond that.
Up until now, the PNA has never defaulted on any loan even from the World Bank. So we have a good record in managing our economy, he said.
Eye more cooperation
Mero told the Global Times that China’s influence is increasing globally and its ties with countries in many regions, including the South Pacific, have developed rapidly in recent years.
China is the second biggest economy in the world, and it is trying to show leadership not only by talking, but actually practicing leadership throughout the world, he said. “That’s why we see China’s influence in the Pacific region increasing. That is the reason why those countries which used to be our traditional allies have now begun to voice concern. I think it’s to do with concern that China is pushing itself into our region,” he said.
He emphasized that “what China is doing is very good. That’s what we need.”
According to him, while the US is the PNG’s traditional ally, the current president has become “isolationist,” which worries them. “The US is not trying to show leadership in the world … And I give you a very good example of what is happening. Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement.”
We are a very small island country susceptible to sea rises and so on. In Papua New Guinea, we are experiencing the impact of climate change, he said.
After the US pulled out, the diplomat was glad to see China become the voice of climate change.
We rely on the sea. So we want our resources to develop in a way that we may really maintain the sustainability and not create too much negative impact on the sea and the land. That’s one of the reasons we want to maintain that relationship with China, he said.
In terms of future cooperation, the ambassador said the PNG still wants more from China as assistance in different sectors.
Now, it’s basically infrastructure, but we want China to be involved in other sectors as well, such as tourism, agriculture, especially because we have fertile land, he said.
“We are a rich country [in resources], but our economy is so small. We cannot build this infrastructure and develop the resources that we have ourselves because we don’t have the financial capacity and expertise to exploit them. The best way is to develop our country. So that’s why we welcome China not only in PNG, but also in other Pacific island countries too,” he said.