Papua New Guinea spent $7 million on 40 Maseratis and 3 Bentleys

A 2019 Maserati
Quattroporte GTS GranSport.
Maserati

• Papua
  New Guinea‘s government spent $7 million on 40 Maserati
  and three Bentley
  Flying Spur luxury sedans to carry world leaders during
  the Asia-Pacific
  Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit,
  The New York Times reports.
• Government officials said the government would recoup
  its investment by selling the vehicles after the summit,
  according to The Times.
• Alan Bollard, APEC’s executive director, told The Times
  that no other APEC member had ever purchased Maserati vehicles
  to transport world leaders.
• Bentley declined Business Insider’s request for
  comment, and Maserati did not immediately respond to a
  request for comment.
• Papua New Guinea is the poorest of the 21 APEC member
  countries. 

Papua New Guinea’s government spent $7 million on 40 Maserati and
three Bentley Flying Spur luxury sedans to carry world leaders
during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit,

The New York Times reports. Over $1.3 million was reportedly
spent on aircraft delivery of the vehicles.

Government officials said the government would recoup its
investment by selling the vehicles after the summit, according to
The Times. Alan Bollard, APEC’s executive director, told The
Times that no other APEC member had ever purchased Maserati
vehicles to transport world leaders.

“It’s certainly not something we were proposing,” he
said.

Bentley declined Business Insider’s request for comment, and
Maserati did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A
Bentley Flying Spur W12 S.
Bentley

Bryan Kramer, an opposition member of Papua New Guinea’s
parliament, told The Times that the decision to purchase
expensive vehicles was impractical due to the country’s
underdeveloped infrastructure, which lacks a national system of
paved roads. Kramer also told The Times that government officials
would allow their wealthy to bypass sales taxes when buying the
vehicles after the summit.

“It’s a scheme to bring the cars into the country using
government funds,” Kramer said.

According to The Guardian, thousands of
people in Papua New Guinea held a day-long strike in protest of
the government’s purchase.

Read more:
The poorest nation in the Pacific will host its richest economic
get-together, and it could descend into a dash for
cash.

In addition, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has
said she won’t be using the luxury fleet and will instead travel
by Toyota Highlander, the country’s national broadcaster
TVNZ 1 reported. 

The APEC summit carries
high stakes for Papua New Guinea, according to Prime Minister
Peter O’Neill, who has said the conference could bolster the
country’s international reputation. Papua New Guinea, which is
the poorest of the 21 APEC
states, has struggled with government corruption and a recent
polio outbreak.