Canberra to fund PNG internet and electricity boost
Ben Packham12:00AM November 14, 2018
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Picture: AAP
Australia will take the lead in the rollout across Papua New Guinea of a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure program aimed at providing electricity and delivering the internet to 70 per cent of the Pacific nation, in a move to reassert Western power and push back against Chinese influence in the region.
As the world’s superpowers battle for military and economic dominance in the South Pacific,
The Australian can reveal the federal government will commit hundreds of millions of dollars towards a new multi-nation investment to deliver 21st century power and communications infrastructure to Australia’s nearest neighbour.
PNG, which will host the APEC leaders summit this weekend, is at the centre of a global bidding war with speculation that China and the US will announce competing funding packages targeting South Pacific nations during the summit.
US Vice-President Mike Pence is expected to unveil new investments from a $US60 billion ($83bn) global infrastructure fund to bankroll “high-quality” projects to rival President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.
Mr Xi, who will arrive in PNG tomorrow ahead of a meeting with island leaders, will announce new mining and energy investments in the South Pacific’s most populous and resource-rich country after Australia.
Beijing will also establish two of Mr Xi’s Confucius institutes at PNG universities in a bid to cement China’s long-term influence in the country.
The Australian can reveal China’s funding package is expected to be dwarfed by a multi-nation initiative to roll out power and fibre-optic internet cable across mainland PNG, where only about 13 per cent of people have mains power, and internet services are poor or non-existent.
Australia, the US, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand are among the nations to join forces to assist PNG in the massive electrification and internet project, which will be the country’s largest ever development investment.
The Australian understands the project was the brainchild of PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, and was discussed with Scott Morrison when the two leaders met in Sydney on November 1. With details being finalised yesterday, it is understood Australia has suggested the project be undertaken as a private-public partnership.
In a speech last week, the Prime Minister flagged a new focus on Pacific infrastructure, unveiling a $2 billion fund to support high-priority projects in energy, telecommunications, transport and water.
A further $1 billion will be given to Efic, Australia’s export financing agency, to support infrastructure investments in the region which have broad national benefit for Australia.
“This is our patch. This is our part of the world,” Mr Morrison said.
“This is where we have special responsibilities. We always have, we always will. We have their back, and they have ours.”
The partnership between Australia and PNG has a strong strategic element, with Mr Morrison and Mr O’Neill confirming earlier this month the two nations would establish a joint naval base on Manus Island, as foreshadowed by
The Australian.
The support for PNG’s domestic network follows Australia’s gazumping of Chinese telco Huawei earlier this year to build a $137 million, 4000km undersea cable linking Australia to PNG and the Solomon Islands.
Australia had also sought to prevent Huawei from building a domestic undersea cable network connecting PNG’s islands to the mainland. But it is understood that deal was too far advanced and the Chinese company will complete the project.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne refused to comment yesterday on the new power and internet project, saying only that Australia was “committed to working with PNG on development plans as part of our ongoing commitment to development, security and stability in the Pacific”.
US President Donald Trump will skip the APEC leaders summit, which starts on Friday.
But Vice-President Mr Pence, who will attend in Mr Trump’s place, has signalled he will use the conference to highlight Washington’s alternative to the BRI — its $US60bn global infrastructure fund to build ports, roads, power plants and communications networks.
Mr Pence, who recently criticised Mr Xi’s BRI as “debt-trap diplomacy”, said this week that the US’s relationship with the Indo-Pacific region had “never been stronger”.
Lowy Institute Pacific program director Jonathan Pryke said the project would be transformational for the nation of eight million, of whom 90 per cent lived in rural areas. “There is a huge infrastructure deficit in PNG,” he said.
