A deal signed between Papua New Guinea's Department of Commerce and Industry and East New Britain's provincial government will pave the way for the development of co-operatives in the province and the New Guinea Islands.
The agreement will create the NGI regional co-operative centre.
The Department of Commerce and Industry secretary Anton Kulit as saying it wanted to revitalise the co-operative movement to these areas, after it collapsed in the 1970s.
Mr Kulit told the National the Co-operative Societies Unit was then created in 2001 to facilitate the revitalisation of co-operatives.
