This was said by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill at the official opening ceremony of the Madang Resort's Wenong AB Wing which cost K4.5 billion.

"We must build our tourism infrastructure today so that we can establish the tourism boom of tomorrow. Oil and gas revenue will not last forever so we have to keep diversifying our economy for the decades to come.

"The Government cannot do this alone, we must work in partnership with the private sector. Together we will build the infrastructure, build the resorts and we will bring in the overseas flights. The tourism market that is open to places like Madang is very big and as an industry we must think big," O'Neill said.

He noted that while Australia and New Zealand were good markets, PNG should look further, particularly to Asia.

"Soon we will establish direct flights to China and this will open major opportunities to access the Chinese overseas tourist market. The Chinese people make more than 100 million overseas trips each year, so even a small fraction of this market is a great number of tourists.

"We must also expand our domestic tourism market so that more Papua New Guineans can see more of our country."

O'Neill said there was much more to come for Madang. "As we prepare to host APEC, you will see changes around Madang. We are preparing for a K150 million upgrade and resealing of Madang town roads, which will benefit our people and businesses greatly. We will further have an expansion in the supply of power in Madang, and we are doing this with private sector investment and partnership."

He said details of this partnership would be announced soon. "Thousands of people will be employed with new jobs on both the land and out on the sea through this project."