Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    BRINGING with them several projects awaiting investment, more than a dozen government officials of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are visiting Shenzhen at the invitation of a local business association. The two sides signed a cooperation deal yesterday that will start with visits to the Oceanian country by Shenzhen investors next year.

    The projects that PNG officials brought included highway construction, hospital redevelopment, economic corridor designing, timber processing, coffee tree-to-cup production, and sweet potato and cassava processing. To Patrick Pruaitch, minister for state treasury of PNG, however, their promotion is not restricted to these projects.

    “We’re here to promote our country,” said the minister. “Seeing the investment opportunities in our country, the Putian business association in Shenzhen invited us to come to promote our projects, hoping that some Shenzhen businessmen will come and make some investments in our country.”

    The minister said that in addition to the projects, other investment opportunities lie in the country’s tourism, hospitality, petroleum, gas, mining and fishery sectors.

    Weng Guoqiang, president of the Putian Commercial Association in Shenzhen, said the association is helping its members find new growth opportunities in overseas countries amid a slowing economy.

    In Shenzhen, there are more than 100,000 businessmen from Putian, a small city in Fujian Province, on the west bank of the Taiwan Straits, according to Weng. They have a general interest in investing overseas to find new opportunities for business growth, Weng said.

    “We’re also exploring opportunities in other countries to help our members,” he said.

    Putian is famous in China for the number of businessmen that originated there. It is estimated that Putian businessmen now own about 80 percent of China’s private hospital network, but they generally keep a very low profile. The Putian businessmen in Shenzhen who showed up at yesterday’s event were mostly from the jewelry sector.

    After introducing the projects, the Papua New Guinea officials, led by Pruaitch and Christopher Siaoa Mero, the PNG ambassador to China, sang their national anthem passionately in a group on the stage at the promotional event.

    The first group of Shenzhen businessmen will visit PNG in March to seek potential cooperation, Weng said.