James Marape made the invitation to Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of APEC 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

The bilateral follows the first-ever US-Pacific Island Country Summit in Washington in September, which brought together more than a dozen Pacific Island leaders.

 

Under discussion in the Washington talks were areas of shared interest, including climate change, maritime security and economic development.

 

The US will be opening its new Embassy building in Port Moresby later this month.

 

The National newspaper Marape invited the US to bring in more US businesses to PNG, particularly in the field of downstream processing.

 

"We pointed them to the area of fisheries, saying that's the best they can do for us, to economically empower us not just today, but more importantly into the future. We invited them, as the biggest global economy, to bring in their companies and take up residence in PNG," Marape said.