ABG receives dividend payments from BSP investment
The ABG Ministry for Economic Development continues to make progress to drive economic reforms to prepare Bougainville’s economy for independence.
Speaking today at the Budget Consultation Workshop in Arawa, ABG Minister for Economic Development and Vice President, Hon. Patrick Nisira, says his Ministry has been reviewing all past investments and economic initiatives made by former Governments to analyze which investments can be progressed to contribute to revenue-raising and those that must be done away with.
One such investments of the first House in 2005 was the government’s investment in Bank South Pacific (BSP) Capital. This was an initiative led by first ABG President, the Late Joseph Kabui.
“Over the years BSP has paying dividends but unfortunately the dividends has not been going to the government, but it went into private hands,” Nisira explained.
Through his Ministry’s intervention, discussions were held with BSP Management and an agreement was reached to have all dividends paid into the ABG consolidated revenue account.
As a result of this, Minister Nisira today presented the first dividend payment totaling K500,000.00 which has been paid into the ABG consolidated revenue account.
Minister Nisira said that there are other similar investments that were done in the past under former governments and are now being reviewed such as the ABG shares in Credit Corporation and AVIS companies.
He said these monies rightly belong to the people of Bougainville and must be used for development purposes of the region.
“Under my leadership and with the support of the administration, we will improve revenue generation in Bougainville,” he assured.
Minister Nisira explained that the government has established a ‘low-hanging fruit’ plan that basically identifies key impact projects that will grow the economy and create opportunities for the people of Bougainville.
Going forward, his Ministry will ensure that all new economic projects will be based on proper evidence and feasibility studies which will inform whether the project is viable before moving on to the next step.
He said his Ministry will continue to work closely with other economic sector ministries and departments to progress these key economic reforms to prepare Bougainville for independence.
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