PNG must balance socio-political environment for economic growth

Letters

LET me express my opinion on some of the critical economic management strategies of the Papua New Guinea economy.
PNG is undoubtedly a rich country in terms of its environment and natural resources but it only lacks the right mix of economic, political, legal and administrative support to boost efficiency in the indigenous, secondary and services sectors to enhance value-adding efforts and a sustainable growth.
In terms of economic support, there should be an establishment and administration of conditional grants targeted at all levels and segments of economic development.
While the mining and petroleum industries are getting a proportionately huge investment finance component of the National Government, the indigenous sectors remain with falling government investments thus, exacerbating a lopsided economic growth.
Thus vehement support is required to diversify public investment decisions to promote a balanced growth through establishment and administration of a structured trust fund.
This notion is more than in line with the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) concept which should target rehabilitation, development and stabilisation portfolios to enhance efficiency, growth and sustainability of economic performance.
However, the pathway to the realisation of the SWF concept is outdated, provided the government is not proactive in this front.
This therefore clearly shows that the SWF is a critical concept that the PNG government must embark on to bolster economic development in the country.
Political support, on the other hand, is best is for the government to look out to the global economies than its traditional and regional partners in areas of foreign and commercial relations.
PNG already has a white paper in addressing this paradigm, the “Look North Policy”, that was introduced in 1982 by the Wingti Government.
Looking out to share interests in areas of foreign and commercial relations is the way forward to harness the benefits of globalisation; which specifically refers to the integration and interdependence of the global economies.
In today’s economic environment, the economic efficiencies are shifting from country to country and the rapid development in former Third World economies of China, Malaysia and Singapore.
Thus, PNG should embark on such policies to propel its own economic development to be on par with the rest of the Third World economies.

Mike Haro, Via email