Government advisers failing duties


RECENTLY, I read about two senior Government ministers who provided positive economic indicators to support their prudent management of the economy.
There is no fuss about the present Government’s management of the economy. However, what these ministers failed to understand is the difference between economic indicators and welfare indicators.
Therein lies the notion held by economists that the positive economic indicators may be translated to positive welfare gains.
Due to this assumed notion, economic indicators gain their prominence.
However, this assumption does not necessarily operate in an automatic fashion as we are led to believe. The reason being the positive economic indicators may be driven by one booming sector, as in the case of PNG by petroleum and mineral sectors at the expense of other sectors.
The ministers should look at the welfare indicators than the economic indicators because the latter is not an end but means to achieve the former.
A lot of commentators are also heard lamenting about not seeing the positive economic indicators being translated into the improvement of people’s welfare.
The problem, I believe, lies with the Government’s own economic advisers than the current Government which has shown its commitment unlike previous governments.
The advisers should assist the Government to translate its macroeconomic gains by building linkages with the microeconomic sectors where the people are.
For example, one such mismatch where prudent economic gains could be fully utilised is; nowadays due to good fiscal management of the budget by the last government coupled with positive foreign reserves inflow, the domestic interest rates in the commercial banks have dropped to the lowest enticing both new and existing borrowers to borrow for investment purposes.
I for one, have equity support from my superfund with loans from commercial banks to build an affordable house in NCD as a first-time homeowner but land is not made available by the Government that should complement its prudent fiscal policy management.
Unless the Government advisers wake up from their slumber to put in place linkages, the efforts of good hard working ministers and the Government they are part of will not make a dent in the living standards of people before the term ends.

Geoff Puri
Port Moresby