This post on HC re GOA.Think it apply s to HIG tooPapua New...

This post on HC re GOA.
Think it apply s to HIG too


Papua New Guinea's new Prime Minister Peter O'Neill yesterday began to pull back from a clash with the crucial resources industry.
Appropriately, the move came on the eve of today's Day of National Repentance.
Mining Minister Byron Chan, the son of former prime minister Julius Chan, sparked the controversy a week ago when he announced that the government would hand over ownership of all PNG's resources, which supply 80 per cent of national export revenues, to landowners.
"The law says that the state owns everything six foot under, both on land and under the sea," Mr Chan told Radio Australia at the time.
"We'd like to change that, possibly almost immediately, to revert the ownership back to the landowners, and relinquish the state from owning anything."
The suggestion alarmed the industry. "This is playing with fire." said Greg Anderson, executive director of the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.
The chamber expressed grave concern about the uncertainties that would result, stating that landowners in PNG already received considerable benefits, including equity, royalties, business development grants and services contracts.
Mr O'Neill responded: "This is not yet government policy. Cabinet and parliament are yet to discuss the matter."
He said that stakeholders would be consulted.
The issue took a high profile at yesterday's meeting in parliament of the Consultation, Monitoring and Implementation Committee, which has become one of the country's most influential policy formation bodies.
Meanwhile, the biggest private company domiciled in PNG, Oil Search, announced on Tuesday that its net profit for the first half of 2011 had almost doubled over the same period in 2010, to $111 million.
And Mr O'Neill reinforced his government's position in the face of continuing legal challenges by appointing 11 vice-ministers in addition to the Cabinet of 33 - guaranteeing him the support of 80 per cent of the MPs he needs to preserve his majority.