Marine industrial zone work making good progress

Caption:  Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, January 25, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

THE Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is making good progress with work to commence soon as of April this year.

The announcement was made by the Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry, Richard Maru on Thursday.

“As we announced to the country last year the PMIZ loan has been reinstated by the Chinese EXIM Bank,” Minister Maru said.

“The contractor has been in Lae since December working on the preliminary studies doing drilling, and doing all the final feasibility work before they finalize the detailed design of the Pacific Marine park which will coming back to government at the end of March or probably early April for the Prime minister to travel to Madang and re-launch the project to start the construction phase of the marine park.”

The Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ) is one of the major Economic Impact Projects, approved by the national government, put in place to support the sustainable development of the fisheries sector.

It is aimed enhance the economic of scale by increasing the volume and value of down-streamed processed tuna products and to reduce the exports of whole frozen tuna exports.

“I want to say that the work is progressing very well and I want to thank the police department, especially the mobile squad unit that is in Madang making sure that the Chinese contractor is there working day and night and not being disturbed by anyone,” Maru said.

“I also want to thank the Madang Provincial Government and its people for the support shown so far.”

“I was in Madang in the previous week to see the actual work on the ground and I am very pleased with the progress to that.”

The minister signed off last week giving the contractor the approval of the concept design for them to go ahead with the detailed designs of the Madang Marine Park, saying that the designs will strictly be to world standards.

“In particular we are now insisting that the contractor must design not to Chinese standards but to international standards,” the minister pointed out.

“The Wharf, the Sewerage treatment plant, the fuel dump- everything designed must be to international standards.”

“After they give us the detailed designs we are going to independently engage leading global experts in each of the engineering fields of water, fuel, power, wharves- to have a look at the designs and approve of them before we can allow the Chinese contractor to go ahead and build.”

He said that it is vital that quality is maintained- as the government is concerned about protecting the environment.

“It is important that whatever waste that comes out of the PMIZ zone is fit to go into the ocean before it gets there,” he said.

“In other words we mist get individual sewerage water plants in each of the canneries which will then be channeled to a treatment plant and treated until it is released into the environment.”

“One of the reasons why government was taken to court previously was because people were afraid of the environment being polluted.

He also revealed that a township will be built opposite the marine park, due to the distance from Madang town for investing companies located within the marine park to have their employees live in.