Morobe Province
Industrial capital Lae connecting highland agriculture to coastal ports via Highlands Highway, with Hidden Valley mine and Wafi-Golpu project pending.
Morobe Province hosts Lae—Papua New Guinea's industrial capital and second-largest city, connected to the Highlands Highway that provides the only land corridor between coast and interior. This geographic position makes Morobe the logistics hub through which agricultural exports flow outward and manufactured goods flow inward, creating commercial activity that pure resource extraction cannot generate.
Lae's port and airport serve as gateway to the coffee, palm oil, and cocoa that highland and coastal producers export. The Highlands Highway, despite maintenance challenges and security concerns, enables truck transport that no other PNG region possesses. This infrastructure advantage creates commercial concentration that Morobe leverages against resource-rich but isolated competitors.
The Hidden Valley gold mine adds resource extraction revenue to Morobe's logistics-based economy. Agricultural processing—coffee milling, palm oil refining—captures value that raw commodity export would forfeit. Manufacturing for the domestic market provides employment diversity that pure extraction economies lack.
The Wafi-Golpu copper and gold project in Morobe awaits final investment decision, potentially adding another major resource operation to the provincial economy. By 2026, expect continued logistics dominance enabled by Highlands Highway connectivity, agricultural processing growth as commodity prices remain favorable, and mining sector expansion pending investment decisions on major projects.