Overseas job outsourcing hurts PNG

By JASON SOM KAUT
PAPUA New Guinea is losing out on job and business opportunities in line with servicing heavy equipment used by mines.
Companies responsible for servicing the machinery are sending the equipment abroad either for repair or regular maintenance instead of having them serviced in the country Lae-based Earthquip PNG managing director David Warriner.
Mr Warriner said recently that repair and maintenance jobs that “can be done in-country were being sent overseas and this meant we were losing in tax revenue and job opportunities of local technicians and mechanics”.
He said companies that supply heavy equipment had their own service workshops in Australia as they “have no desire to keep the work in PNG”.
It was understood that mining companies are exempted from import taxes on equipment including large dump trucks, bulldozers, wheel loaders, graders and excavators that are all sent out of the country for maintenance servicing.
Mr Warriner said management of all mining companies here should have corporate responsibility to encourage and promote investment in second-tier engineering businesses that would benefit nationals.
The company boasts the latest technology to handle the biggest cylinders from mining and construction companies.
“But there is not enough work for us to do,” Mr Warriner lamented.
Earthquip PNG had since 2004 been the country’s only complete hydraulic cylinder workshop capable of handling and fully servicing mining equipment.
The company boasts the latest technology to handle the biggest cylinders from mining and construction companies.
“But there is not enough work for us to do,” Mr Warriner said.
Despite limited opportunities and a high interest rates period, his firm was taking delivery of a K660,000-cylindrical grinder with a 800mm diameter capable of taking six-metre long cylinder rods.
The scope of the company’s work had now widened with the purchase of large equipment for mine work and the five-year training of two tradesmen.
“One is a specialist in honing - that is not a skill taught in technical schools here,” he said.

 

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