Getting to the heart of PNG enterprise
02 May 2009
Occasional
PNG
Attitude contributor and publisher of PNG Bisnis, MOALE RIVU, provides readers with a brief introduction to his unique magazine.
Papua New Guinea
has a population of six million people. It is resource rich with gold, copper,
oil, natural gas, timber and fisheries. Next year work will commence on a
liquid natural gas project that the government says will change the fortunes of
PNG.
Despite its
natural wealth, 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line. The
formal sector provides only 200,000 jobs. Every year 80,000 kids complete their
education but only five percent can be absorbed by the formal sector. The vast
majority of the people survive in the informal sector.
It’s against this
background that we launched PNG Bisnis in 2007 to encourage Papua New
Guineans to get involved in self-employment activities or start, operate and
own small to medium enterprises. Our research showed that in many countries,
including Australia, small businesses employ more people than big business.
The circulation
of PNG Bisnis is 3,000 per issue and we have arrangements with two banks
(PNG Microfinance Ltd and ANZ) and EDTC, a company specialising in business
courses, who distribute the magazine to the SME sector.
A subscription is
$A50 for one year. Advertising rates are $A1,500 full page and $A750 half page.
We are a good
medium for Australian companies who export to PNG as well as educational
institutions.
For more
information about advertising in or subscribing to PNG Business, you can
contact Moale by email here or telephone
(675) 326 1103. Moale, who also runs his own communications company in Port Moresby, was recently reappointed to the Board of the National
Broadcasting Corporation for a further three years.
Cause and effect
The recent violence that occurred after the last State of Origin football
match is to be deplored but the subsequent logic behind demolishing a
squatter settlement seems hard to follow. I refer to the AAP article in the
Courier Mail of 26th of June 2009 titled "Police demolish settlement where
three die in Origin violence'.
A similar process occurred when a prominent businessman was recently
murdered in Moresby.
Now it doesn't take 'Blind Freddy' to work out that there seems to be some
connection between a murder and retribution on a squatter settlement.
But is that going to fix the problem? Then again, what is the problem?
Murder, illegal squatters or frustrated police and officials? Destroying
people's houses surely won't make them return to their rural homelands?
The rural drift is nothing new and has been ignored for years. Similar
processes occurred throughout history in most countries where rural incomes
and opportunities declined and the cities held the false promise of
employment and better living conditions. Tens of thousands of PNG young
adults graduate each year and have very little opportunities to obtain real
and lawful employment. This national resource is being squandered and
allowed to fester and turn in on itself.
The only real employer that can soak up some of this available and trained
labour force is the service industry. No, not the public service. That doesn't
produce anything and nothing that can directly be taxed.
But in order to have a service industry, there must be an expectation that
it can produce something people want? Where are the government studies that
have determined what people want and need? Where are the planned development
opportunities for these service industries to be created and those small
individual loans to make it happen?
Small, personal loans (micro loans) to create service industries are a big success story
elsewhere in the world. Why not in PNG?
Posted by: Paul Oates | 28 June 2009 at 11:38 AM