Mori tasks department to plan sector policies

TRADE Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori has tasked his department to prepare policy initiatives and possible legislation within two weeks to revive run-down plantations and co-operative societies.
Mori yesterday met agencies in his ministry and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock.
The initiatives will identify ways to ease stringent commercial bank borrowing guidelines which have been a hindrance to the development of cooperatives and small businesses over the years.
Mori recently visited Vietnam where the co-operative concept was big and contributing to that rapid economic development.
China and New Zealand are also two countries whose socio-economic success can be credited to cooperative societies.
“It is not rocket science to see how these countries have built up their economies and lifted the living standards of their citizens,” he said.
“If Vietnam which did not produce a single green coffee bag in 1975 is now producing millions of bags, and PNG which had a thriving coffee industry at Independence is struggling with just under a million bags, then something is wrong and we must identify what that is.”
Mori  urged civil servants to work with private sector agents and to “think outside the box”to implement government policies.
“The changing global business environment has the same impact on PNG as any other developed and developing countries,” he said.
“The need for governments to read and respond is far more challenging today.
“As leaders, we need to be innovative and develop economic models which will spur economic and social growth in our untapped resource, the rural economies and its population.”