Papua New Guinea strives to strengthen securities markets

Reposted from Fiji Sun
By Emmanuel Maipe

Port Moresby: Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru has vowed to strengthen the securities market through proper regulatory framework and legislation.

He told reporters last week there had been a lack of growth in the business of securities and investment managers, trustees, and funds managers due to lack of proper regulation and legislation in place to address it.

“We don’t have a proper regulatory framework in the country to regulate the securities market,” Mr Maru said.

He said the Securities Commission of Papua New Guinea (PNG), which regulated the Port Moresby Stock Exchange, was very weak due to lack of support and commitment from the government over the years.

Mr Maru intends to change through a number of approaches which will see the securities market become more robust and competitive to give more options to shareholders and unit holders.

The approaches include a legislation to allow the Securities Commission to make policy pronouncement on issues which affect the securities market and to articulate the institutional arrangements that will run the regulatory activities.

“This is important for market growth but, unfortunately, successive governments have not provided the required support to ensure that the market grows,” Mr Maru said.

Other approaches include having the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) investigate different securities market models within the region, to ensure that an appropriate regulatory gap analysis is carried out to ensure the Securities Act 1997 is updated.

Mr Maru wants to see this fully supported as it was the interest of the current government to have PNG as the biggest player in the securities in the region.

He said he intends to have overseas securities market players come to compete in the market in the country to provide options for investments to the people.

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