Second Joint Coordination Committee Meeting for Phase 2 of EITI Project

On 21 May 2025, JICA and government stakeholders from the PNG Extractive Industries Transparency International (PNG EITI) National Secretariat (NS), the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Office of the Auditor General, Department of Finance, PNG Customs, Department of National Planning & Monitoring and other representatives from other development agencies such as the World Bank Group; all joined the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting that was held at the Department of Treasury to discuss the progress of activities under Phase 2 of the project for Improving Resource Related Revenue Management (EITI Project Phase 2).

Target activities under Phase 1 & 2 of the EITI project
The project acknowledges that the PNG economy is largely driven by the extractive industry, producing around 30 percent of GDP for PNG. However, the improvement of accessibility to reliable information and a credible reporting mechanism on the revenue earned from these resource projects remain a significant challenge. Making this information readily available is key to attracting more foreign direct investment and more equitablee distribution of resource rent. This is an area that JICA and the PNGEITI National Secretariat office have been working together to address through both Phase 1 & 2 of the project for “Improving Resource Related Revenue Management”.

In response to the result of the last EITI validation, Phase 2 of this project intends to (i) improve reporting mechanisms within both the office of the Auditor General and with NPA to verify the quality of data reported to the PNG EITI National Secretariat from reporting entities and (ii) on the disclosure for the register of license, production data and export data in the oil and gas sector. For the disclosure of such data, the e-government portal being developed by the Department of Information Communication Technology is expected to be utilized to share EITI related reports .

Highlights of Phase 1 demonstrating JICA support for women empowerment in PNG
A significant highlight of phase 1 of this project saw the development of learning material in collaboration with Civil Society and private sector to guide employers and employees of the extractive industries in their engagements with all people including women living along project sites. The learning material covers topics such as the impact of Gender Based Violence on the extractive community in PNG. These learning materials were handed back to the PNGEITI National Secretariat to store and distribute to all relevant CSOs and private sector organizations. Given this special consideration for gender issues in Phase 1 of this project, JICA aims to continue re-emphasizing our stance to support women and girls and other vulnerable groups through our cooperation activities in PNG and encourages their active participation in JICA’s various projects as well as training programs.