In the Australasian nation of Papua New Guinea and officials are reportedly set to conduct a search in hopes of finding an international firm to run an envisioned $43 million casino resort being planned for the city of Port Moresby.

According to a report from G3Newswire, the exercise is to be conducted by the National Gaming Control Board of Papua New Guinea after the regulator awarded local developer Paga Hill Development Company the contract to build the country’s first ever casino resort. The source detailed that the planned venue is due to sit in the seaside Paga Hill Estate district of the nation’s largest community and look to improve the local economy by attracting foreign gamblers from as far afield as Australia, China and the United States.

Lucrative label:

Home to almost nine million people, Papua New Guinea reportedly designated the Paga Hill Estate district of its capital city as a Tourism Special Economic Zone in March of last year. This move purportedly means that the borough offering panoramic views out over the Gulf of Papua will be able to take advantage of a range of fiscal incentives that have been designed to attract foreign investment into one of the South Pacific’s poorest nations.

Chinese concentration:

The move from the government of Papua New Guinea will reportedly moreover give Paga Hill Development Company the right to complement this gambling enterprise by constructing an adjacent hotel, cinemas and a variety of retail elements. The entire facility it to purportedly look to target the middle classes of mainland China, which is a group that is set to account for approximately 25% of all inbound tourism by the end of the decade.

Developer delight:

George Hallit serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Paga Hill Development Company and he reportedly pronounced that the coming casino resort will furthermore ‘attract new visitors’ to the country and accompany a planned military museum and nearby cultural center. The executive purportedly declared that the envisioned gambling-friendly venue is to moreover ‘create tourism and hospitality jobs’ while supporting ‘a range of spin-off and servicing businesses.’

Reportedly read a statement from Hallit…

“Whilst Papua New Guinea already enjoys strong leisure tourism in the adventure and nature segments, new attractions need to be developed to broaden this audience and increase visitation. Plans for Paga Hill Estate feature a range of tourism infrastructure that will together transform the visitor experience with a casino serving as a key element of this tourism strategy and as a proven means of attracting international visitation.”

Sweeping search:

Hallit reportedly finished by disclosing that his company soon hopes to be able to release more news regarding the planned Port Moresby casino resort and now intends to work with the National Gaming Control Board of Papua New Guinea to find a suitable international operating partner.