The National reports that the Department of Commerce, Trade and Industry has been directed to identify business opportunities for the provincial government and communities affected by the project which is located in Madang province.
While a majority of gas tenements are located in the south of PNG, Kina Petroleum's PPL 337 acreage is located in Madang, with the company stating on its website that it hopes to define a sizeable resource which could supply domestic demand or be exported as LNG.
Similarly Hong Kong miner Metallurgical Corporation of China operates a nickel mine in the province which exports mixed nickel cobalt hydroxide to China.
Minister Richard Maru said work on the PMIZ was "progressing well" and an adjacent township was planned to house workers.
He also said final designs for the project would be submitted in March or April, and that the facilities should meet international standards.
"Once the government is happy and National Executive Council endorses the project to proceed, Prime Minister (Peter O'Neill) will go to Madang to re-launch the park that we have been working over the last two years. We want construction of the park and the water and power plants to start in April," he said.
"It's important we can maintain quality, we are concerned about protecting the environment -whatever comes out of the Madang industrial zone should be fit to go into the ocean."
Fishing is a major concern for people living in the region, with community opposition reportedly growing in response to the project.
The PNG government has attempted to assuage community fears, saying that once the PMIZ was up and running it would consider not issuing fishing licences to international fishing fleets unless they had processing plants in the country.
Foreign fleets which fish in PNG waters do not process their catch locally to the detriment of the PNG fisheries industry, with an estimated 2 billion kina ($A966.4 million) lost to overseas processing factories.
Maru said he hoped that the PMIZ development would help stem the loss, adding that PNG "resources should not create wealth for other countries".
"I will be pushing through the National Executive Council that no fishing licence will be given to companies that do not have processing plants in PNG," he said.
