K10,000 for co-oporative society

By ELIZABETH VUVU
THE collapse of co-operative societies in PNG has been blamed on greedy businessmen and their politician friends.
Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Gabriel Kapris said this when launching the Sikut Co-operative Society in East New Britain province last Friday.
Mr Kapris also blamed lack of vision and foresight by past governments for the failure of these societies.
He described cooperative societies as a vehicle for farmers and PNG’s rural dwellers in nation building.
“Apart from lack of vision and foresight by past governments, greedy businessmen saw these societies as a threat to their businesses and used politicians to dismantle them. They were selfish and only wanted their businesses to flourish, at the expense of the majority of our people,” Mr Kapris said.
He said the collapse of the Sepik co-operative societies was a perfect example of businessmen’s greed at play.
He said the Somare Government was reviving the societies, and he would bring a submission to Cabinet to have the Co-operative Societies directly funded from the budget.
The co-operative society movement started in PNG in 1947 but died away until it was reactivated in 2000.
Today, almost 400 cooperative societies had been registered from more than 800 applicants.
Mr Kapris said they would drive the economy and people would be directly involved in growing the economy.
Chief executive officer of Cocoa Board of PNG Lauatu Tautea urged the people of Sikut to use their co-operative society to expand their cocoa production.
He said PNG cocoa was rated the best in the world, along side Ghana’s, and this was the time to expand our cocoa plots.
Mr Tautea said the Board would continue to monitor and demand that top quality cocoa is produced and exported.