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Credit: Kramer Ausenco
PNG’s construction companies also work across the region. As well as working on the new K90 million Treasury Building in Port Moresby, Lamana Development Ltd is currently building the new K18.5 million PNG Chancellery in the Solomon Islands and has hotel projects in Samoa and Fiji. The latter, the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, is expected to open in the first half of 2014. Artist’s impression of Western Highlands Development Corporation’s complex in Mt Hagen
‘I still think there’s plenty of work out there,’ says Dominic Avenell, Managing Director of Avenell Engineering Systems (AES), a construction business with its origins in the rebuilding of Rabaul following the 1994 volcanic eruptions. ‘We tend to spread ourselves out. We go looking for contracts and I think having our sort of experience gives us an advantage.’ AES has recently completed construction of the muchneeded tuberculosis ward at Daru General Hospital, residential dormitories at Port Moresby Technical College and new buildings for the Pacific Adventist University in Port Moresby— three Australian Aid-funded projects.
Quiet, but not too quiet Meanwhile, Frank Kramer reports a ‘very good year in terms of overall revenue. Our bottom line has been well and truly over budget’. The firm has a number of major projects just finished or about to finish in early 2014, including Stage Two of the Windward Apartments complex at Ela Beach, while the new harbourside office building for Steamships is 70% complete. Among its new projects are the new K250 million (US$98 million) 300-bed Enga Hospital, expected to start in the second half of the year; the K85 million (US$33 million) refurbishment of Marea House in Waigani, a K100 million (US$39 million) complex for the Western Highlands Development Corporation in Mt Hagen and several hundred million kina's worth of roads and bridges for the Ok Tedi Development Foundation. ‘I think construction activity will be quiet for the better part of this year and we can expect to see some level of activity starting to ramp up again in 2015,’ says Kramer. Despite his ‘quiet’ year, he estimates that the firm has already secured about 85% of budgeted revenue for 2014.
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Increased government spending In 2014, the National Government will inject K2.7 billion (US$1.06 billion) of spending into infrastructure such as roads, ports, and power and water treatment facilities. Major transport projects include a four-lane highway connecting PNG’s industrial hub Lae to its airport at Nadzab, the Highlands Highway, funding of the expansion of Lae’s port and the K30 million upgrade of Port Moresby’s Jacksons International Airport. The government has also allocated K180 million (A$78 million) for infrastructure and other requirements to host the 2015 Pacific Games. This includes the construction of facilities including refurbishment and construction of stadia in Port Moresby.
More competition Many international companies who worked on the construction phase of the LNG project have stayed on. ‘The cost of doing business, the cost of services, has gone down. Now there are more people capable of getting the job done,’ observes Dominic Avenell. Frank Kramer agrees, and sees it as a big plus for PNG: ‘Quite a lot of them are looking around for more work. There is now much more construction capacity in PNG. This is good, but we must always ensure there is significant national content in the industry.’ One international company looking to extend its work in PNG is the China Railway Company, which will commence work on the construction of the Waigani Convention Centre by the end of this month. In the longer term, the sector is also waiting eagerly for the InterOil/Total SA LNG project to explore and develop the Elk and Antelope fields in Gulf Province. Kramer expects it will be another three or four years before ‘serious construction on the ElkAntelope fields begins’.