The Government of Papua New Guinea is a Westminster Parliamentary Democracy, with the British monarch as Head of State and the Prime Minister as chief political executive.  The national flag uses the traditional PNG colours of black, red and yellow.  The soaring kumul bird of paradise represents PNG's emergence into nationhood while the Southern Cross reflects close links with Australia and other South Pacific neighbours.

Each of the 20 provinces of PNG has its own provincial government and there is a third tier of local government. West New Britain is divided into 11 local government areas.  The Provincial Flag is the national flag surrounded by blue representing the sea and with a white, yellow and brown conch shell representing communication.

PNG is richly endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain and the high cost of developing infrastructure. Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for 85% of the population.  However, increasingly there is a modern economic system developing based on mining, petroleum, fishing, forestry, tourism and agriculture.  Mineral deposits, including oil, copper, and gold, account for 72% of export earnings. The government has had considerable success in attracting international support, specifically gaining the backing of the IMF and the World Bank in securing development assistance loans.

The main industries are copra crushing, palm oil processing, plywood production, wood chip production; mining of gold, silver, and copper; crude oil production; construction, and tourism.

The cash economy of the Islands region is predominantly based on agriculture: cocoa and copra in East New Britain and Manus; palm oil in West New Britain and New Ireland.  In fact West New Britain is sometimes called the Palm Oil Province.

Oil palm was introduced to Papua New Guinea in 1967 when the first plantings were made in the Hoskins area of West New Britain. The town of Kimbe was established to provide a port and infrastructure facilities for the oil palm industry. The agricultural model adopted has been to plant a large central estate where processing or mill facilities are incorporated. Surrounding this, are thousands of smallholders on their own oil palm farms. The smallholders come from many different areas of PNG. Smallholder oil palm blocks range in size from 2 to 6 hectares of plantings.

Oil palm bunches containing many small dark red fruits, form at the base of the palm fronds (or leaves). These are manually harvested using a hook on the end of an aluminium pole. Bunches of fruit are produced all year round. Oil palm is the most productive producer of vegetable oils per unit area of any vegetable crop in the world. The refined oil is used for cooking, particularly in the fast food industry, and in cosmetics. If you look at the source of oils in soaps and products from The Body Shop group of stores you will see a wide use of palm oil.

Oil palm is now the leading agricultural export earner for PNG.