The 2018 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in Port Moresby would boost PNG tourism.
Solloway said the ANZ Quarterly Survey for April 2015 revealed that companies looking to trade with PNG, or compete for tenders for work there, needed to consider that it was expensive to live and work there. "There is poor infrastructure too.
"Electricity is not reliable and certainly worse in rural areas."
He said that due to the country's 1000 traditional societies, 850 languages and range of ethnic groups, there were cultural sensitivities around tribal affiliations.
Security was a huge issue too.
"This needs to be considered if doing business in PNG," Solloway said.
"You will have the expense of security escorting you to and from meetings. You just don't walk down the streets."
While getting payment out of PNG for work completed was not a huge task, extracting dividends could prove difficult due to foreign currency restrictions, however.
ANZ had a base there and was working through the issue with Kiwi companies.
Solloway described business with PNG as "short-term pain for long-term gain".
MarketsThe Pacific markets could be divided into three main sectors, he said.
Engineering and construction was taking place around extractable resources in PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia. There was also infrastructure development, including stalled plans for a new military base in the US territory of Guam.
Aid was also being piped into the development of renewable energy, transport and agriculture.
Tourism was the third big market sector, including high-value niche places in French Polynesia, as well as hotels and resorts at Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands.
Fiji, Solloway said, had enjoyed a strong trading relationship with New Zealand and offered commercial opportunities in tourism and infrastructure development, especially as "recent elections have stabilised the political environment".
The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were susceptible to economic shocks but had resources in fishing, forestry and minerals and infrastructure development. The French Pacific offered a different market due to its heavy European influence, including the presence of EU regulations and standards.
The tourism-related sector accounted for 85 per cent of economic value add there, and 80 per cent of the labour force.
Solloway said the food and beverage industry, as well as building and construction, were ripe for investment in French Polynesia.
In New Caledonia, mining meant that engineering and support services and construction were all opportunities.
Business briefingDr Shane Reti, who organised the event as the first of a regular run of quarterly business briefings, said he noticed the need for this event while researching to help a Northland company do business in the Pacific.
He stumbled across the ExxonMobil liquefied natural gas plant in PNG, which he said employed more than 20,000 people.
There were, he said, opportunities in PNG for Whangarei companies in engineering, labour, marine and utilities.
"It was a whole area of research that was needed. New Zealand pumps millions of dollars into the Pacific - why then shouldn't Whangarei companies compete for overseas contracts and benefits?"
He said another option was joint ventures with the Chinese.
"The Chinese might have the money but not the expertise that Northland companies would have."
He was keen to hear from local businesses with experience in doing business in the Pacific.
