Foreign owned companies serving poison on PNG plates
20 February 2016
PNG EXPOSED | Edited
UNDER Section 3 of the Investment Promotion Regulations 1992, certain businesses are reserved for citizens, ‘fast food take-away, kai bars of all descriptions including mobile delivery food service’.
“Really?” you ask. Yes, really. That is what the regulations say.
But this didn’t prevent Chinese nationals Xing Wu Zhou and Zhongshen Zhang setting up kai bars through their company J & Z Trading Limited.
On 11 March 2007, husband and wife Anita and Andrew Baikisa of Madang purchased fried rice from J & Z, expecting to enjoy their lunch under the shade of a nearby tree. Their enjoyment was short-lived.
Hidden underneath the top layer of rice was a festering pit of mould. It was a free extra they could have done without.
But Anita and Andrew weren’t your everyday consumers. They didn’t throw away the food. They got sick all right, but not before they alerted the authorities.
The couple reported J & Z to Sergeant Toby Kamseboda, who boldly tasted the food. He immediately took the couple to the local health inspector to report the incident.
Later that night Anita and Andrew became violently ill and presented at the General Hospital, where doctors found them suffering severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration.
When they recovered, the Baikisa’s took legal action. Last week the Papua New Guinea National Court found J & Z Trading Limited guilty of negligence.
With assets of over K10 million, this Chinese business has done well out of the kai bar trade in a sector reserved for Papua New Guineans.
The question must be asked why the Investment Promotion Authority has not enforced the regulations. And why aren’t the health authorities inspecting and fining these companies when their hygiene standards are so obviously low?
According to the former chair of Political Science at the University of PNG, James Chin, the J & Z company is not alone.
Many foreign nationals are entering PNG illegally and flouting the law.
Looking at Chinese mainland migrants, he writes that, once they have bribed their way in, they “immediately start small trading concerns, selling cheap Chinese consumer projects such as electronic goods and clothes.
“Others establish ‘kai bars’ (fast food outlets) and Chinese restaurants. All these businesses are illegal because such commercial activities are reserved for nationals …
“Other illegal operations run by mainland Chinese in PNG include brothels and money laundering.”
This is not about race or ethnicity; no one deserves to be judged on the colour of their skin.
It is about foreign business people coming into PNG with a view to exploiting weaknesses in law enforcement and regulation. Whether it be in forestry, mining or services, why are foreign entities allowed to monopolise our resources, avoid taxes, damage our environment, avoid justice and make our people sick.
Something stinks, and it isn’t just Anita and Andrew’s fried rice.
Likewise to Mathias Kin, in Banz town, North Waghi District of Jiwaka Province majority of the shops(retail, wholesale, restaurants) are all owned by the foreigners especially the Chinese.
We cannot take it anymore, those in authority must take advantage and do something as soon as possible before they ruin us or the situation changes from bad to worse.
Posted by: Banz Ngal Feddy | 23 February 2016 at 11:01 PM
Well said Mr. Kin.
It is complex, maybe people power can spark change?
Posted by: Bernard Singu Yegiora | 23 February 2016 at 05:19 PM
Rose nearly died when she contracted dysentery from a foreign-owned kai bar. The fish was bad, the sisters rang me and we got her to hospital just in time.
PNG needs to wake up. She went back and complained and only avoided being assaulted by the intervention of some PNG locals.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 21 February 2016 at 04:15 AM
Yes the works stinks. Every Chinese chop owner or a kai bar owner has a politician behind him. Even as soon they enter a town, they quickly entice a local policeman and put them on their payroll.
In any event, they quickly pick up a mobile and soon that blue uniformed man is at the door. In Kundiawa, Goroka and Hagen, even in our little Chuave town on the highlands highway we have a Chinese company operating selling very cheap clothes and electrical appliances. How do we stop them?
Once again it points to strong leaders or a lack of it that promoting these rubbish to continue.
Posted by: Mathias Kin | 20 February 2016 at 07:35 PM
This is one of the unfortunate consequences of the government not funding the health inspectors to do their job so that they can inspect such places regularly.
Posted by: Joe Herman | 20 February 2016 at 04:57 PM