Department store general manager Wong Tee Tee was driving his Toyota sport utility vehicle in Port Moresby when a group of unidentified men shot at his car at close range.
The 63-year-old Malaysian, who had lived in the Papua New Guinea capital for 20 years, was killed Wednesday.
His two children, who live in Singapore, are flying there Saturday to identify and collect his body.
It is not known why Wong was killed, but the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary's acting deputy commissioner, Fred Yakasa, said that he believes the incident was planned and organised by 'non-Papua New Guineans'.
"It is similar in nature to the attempted murder of another Asian businessman," he said in a statement.
"I assume that there is some level of organised crime syndicate at play somewhere. We do not have the evidence to prove this at this point in time, but I am confident we will in the near future."
The Straits Times understands that Wong married a Singaporean in 1978 and has two grown-up children - a daughter and a son - in Singapore.
When contacted, his son - who wanted to be known only as Ng - asked for privacy and declined to comment on his father and their relationship.
It was unclear when Wong last contacted his family, but his sudden death set off a mad scramble by his friends to contact his next-of-kin.
One of them, Cliff Poh, posted an advertisement in The Straits Times Friday asking to get in touch with Wong's children in Singapore.
The Singaporean, who has business dealings in Papua New Guinea, said he managed to reach Wong's son and daughter yesterday, and will be accompanying them to the Pacific island Saturday.
Papua New Guinea has a sizeable community of Malaysians.
Last year, a similar attempt was made on the life of Malaysian businessman Jason Tan. Two Chinese nationals were later arrested and charged with attempted murder in that case.
