‘Demand, supply drive business growth’

Business

DEMAND and supply are the two forces that drive business growth, says Institute of Banking and Business Management executive director Johnson Pundari.
He said during a small to medium enterprise (SME) leadership awards night on Thursday in Port Moresby that their interactions and engagement with different business stakeholders had given them the privilege to learn how to do business.
“On the demand side, the willingness and patience of local business men and women to do business is unlimited,” he said.
“But the resources needed to meet this need is limited.”
Pundari said some of the major constraints included the lack of entrepreneurial mindsets.
“Comparing to common belief, we think we need money to start a business but that is the least of the issues,” he said.
He said incentives to promote entrepreneurship in the company, creating of promotional activity and innovation were also lacking.
“The Papua New Guinea regulatory environment continues to be a challenge in terms of promoting healthy business environment for local entrepreneurs to do business.
“For example, in an ideal situation, an SME policy can be well supported by a reduction in the company tax for local companies. But that’s not the case. In fact, it’s just one example.”
Pundari said there were lots of intervention programmes like what they were doing at IBBM and around the country. But they all operate in silence because of the lack of coordinated support.
“Cooperation among the government, private sector, development partners, and resources developers is needed to reduce challenges and identify measures to address them.”
Pundari challenged the government to use the private sector to achieve the small business policy objectives.