Chinese resources drive fuels resentment in PNG
Monday, 9 July 2007
MOUNT HAGEN, Papua New Guinea, July 8 (AFP): China's relentless drive for resources to fuel its booming economy, already drawing charges of neo-colonialism in Africa, is causing growing resentment in Papua New Guinea.
From the dusty streets of small towns in the remote highlands to a major nickel mine near the coast, Chinese people are increasingly visible in this mineral-rich country which prides itself on being "the last frontier."
Many Papua New Guineans, mostly descended from fierce warrior tribes which had no contact with the outside world until less than a lifetime ago, do not like what they see.
Labour Secretary David Tibu has accused the Chinese government- owned Metallurgical Group Corporation (known as MCC) of treating local workers "like slaves" at its 750 million dollar Ramu mine in northeastern Madang province.
They were paid just four dollars a day, sometimes given tins of fish for overtime and faced degrading canteen and toilet facilities, he said earlier this year, threatening to close the project down.
Work has gone ahead, however, with the company also winning a 10- year tax holiday and other perks from the government of Prime Minister Michael Somare, which is fighting for a new term in office in elections ending on July 10.
With a chance of a new government taking power in PNG's notoriously unstable parliament and simmering bitterness over the rapid influx of tens of thousands of Chinese, some of those conditions could be up for review.
"They've negotiated a whole range of very exclusive investment conditions, with zero import duties on equipment and this, that and the other, plus a 10-year tax holiday," analyst Paul Barker told AFP.
"So there may be some pressure to try and at least tweak them in some places," said Barker, executive director of the Papua New Guinea Institute of National Affairs, an independent think tank.
After the labour secretary's attack, the MCC said it would review conditions at the mine.
China's ambassador, Wei Ruixing, said the Ramu mine was the biggest commercial investment by a Chinese company in the Pacific Islands region and both the Chinese and PNG governments wanted the project to succeed.
Apart from the mine, the rapid spread of Chinese and other Asians such as Koreans into businesses around this island country off the northeastern tip of Australia has also provoked animosity.
From the dusty streets of small towns in the remote highlands to a major nickel mine near the coast, Chinese people are increasingly visible in this mineral-rich country which prides itself on being "the last frontier."
Many Papua New Guineans, mostly descended from fierce warrior tribes which had no contact with the outside world until less than a lifetime ago, do not like what they see.
Labour Secretary David Tibu has accused the Chinese government- owned Metallurgical Group Corporation (known as MCC) of treating local workers "like slaves" at its 750 million dollar Ramu mine in northeastern Madang province.
They were paid just four dollars a day, sometimes given tins of fish for overtime and faced degrading canteen and toilet facilities, he said earlier this year, threatening to close the project down.
Work has gone ahead, however, with the company also winning a 10- year tax holiday and other perks from the government of Prime Minister Michael Somare, which is fighting for a new term in office in elections ending on July 10.
With a chance of a new government taking power in PNG's notoriously unstable parliament and simmering bitterness over the rapid influx of tens of thousands of Chinese, some of those conditions could be up for review.
"They've negotiated a whole range of very exclusive investment conditions, with zero import duties on equipment and this, that and the other, plus a 10-year tax holiday," analyst Paul Barker told AFP.
"So there may be some pressure to try and at least tweak them in some places," said Barker, executive director of the Papua New Guinea Institute of National Affairs, an independent think tank.
After the labour secretary's attack, the MCC said it would review conditions at the mine.
China's ambassador, Wei Ruixing, said the Ramu mine was the biggest commercial investment by a Chinese company in the Pacific Islands region and both the Chinese and PNG governments wanted the project to succeed.
Apart from the mine, the rapid spread of Chinese and other Asians such as Koreans into businesses around this island country off the northeastern tip of Australia has also provoked animosity.