11 Feb 2014

Compromise offer to Papua New Guinea govt from SDP

12:03 pm on 11 February 2014

Papua New Guinea's Sustainable Development Programme says it has offered the Peter O'Neill government a compromise over the Ok Tedi dispute.

This comes after the government last year moved to absorb the charity company's majority share in the mine.

Don Wiseman has more:

"The Sustainable Development Program launched legal action and last week a request for arbitration filed by the company in Singapore was accepted by the US based International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. The chairman of the company, former PNG prime minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, says their proposal offers a fair, constructive and amicable solution to the dispute over the State's expropriation of Ok Tedi, without compensation, and its attempts to take control of the SDP. He says the company has had extensive talks with an Eminent Persons Group, prompting a compromise offer he says is satisfactory to the company, the government and the people of Western Province. Sir Mekere says it is aimed in particular at protecting the programme's Long Term Fund, as well as ensuring the people of Western Province get a guaranteed level of social and economic development now and in the future after the mine closes."