Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Chinese slam PNG report about security breaches

Posted at 01:47 on 10 October, 2008 UTC

The Chinese operator of the Ramu nickel Project in Madang province has denied claims it has been abusing Papua New Guinea by bringing in its expatriate workers illegally.

Ramu NiCo says a report in the Post Courier newspaper that the workers are entering PNG without proper security, customs and immigration checks are offensive and implausible.

The report stems from claims by PNG’s National Intelligence Organisation and the Transnational Crime Unit that the government had exempted the workers, mainly Chinese engineers, from the checks.

They also claim that more then 300 so-called unhealthy looking engineers bound for the Ramu mine have been entering PNG every week since last year.

But the deputy general manager for the corporate office of Ramu NiCo, Wu Xuefeng, says the company has followed every due process and procedure of the country’s laws.

He warned that continued negative speculation over the company’s operations in PNG could jeopardise the project and possibly see the country lose an expected 8 percent increase in gross domestic product.