Residents in Port Moresby city will see the construction of the new Chinatown commence in March and is set to be a project like no other. PNG HAUSBUNG recently sat down with Ms. Lois Lin, the General Manager of Baosen International Holdings Limited, the developer of the new Baosen Chinatown, who revealed a massive project that Port Moresby city has never seen the likes of before. Ms. Lin revealed that the new Chinatown project consists of three phases, with phase one set to commence just next month. She said phase one will cover an area of 90, 000 square meters about three times the size of Vision City. She said phase one of this massive project is purely focused on the commercial portion of the Chinatown. Phase two will focus on residential and phase three on the building of hotels, restaurants and office spaces. When asked as to why such as massive undertaking, her answer was simple, it’s to give something back. “This kind of project is normal in China, but Port Moresby has never seen such a project here before, so that’s what we want to do. We want to build a landmark in Port Moresby, and to also attract people outside PNG to come visit or even live here. This will help bring employment and also development to PNG,” said Ms. Lin. Work on phase one will start next month and will consist of local contractors and Chinese contractors working together on this project. “We need a lot of people here, so we are hiring now.” The project covers a land area of 110, 000 square meters and has a total floor area of 270, 000 square meters. It consists of three large shopping mall groups, residence and boutique hotels. The project contains a fresh food supermarket, an electrical appliance supermarket, a home lifestyle store, a boutique commercial street, a large children’s playland, various dining restaurants, and a 5-star hotel. This massive undertaking was supposed to commence five years ago in 2019, but the COVID- 19 pandemic put a halt to it. Ms. Lim said an initial K150million was invested into the project then, but COVID stopped the work. Following the pandemic, things slowly picked up, hence the delay. Nevertheless, this year will see it get off ground. Ms. Lim said phase one will cost around K300million and will take about two years to complete. Currently, they are awaiting the materials to arrive from China and also for the Chinese contractors to return from spending their Chinese New Year holiday.