Guidelines needed to distribute funds

MILNE Bay administrator Ashan Numa has called for guidelines to be put in place for the distribution of funds by the Government to support small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Numa told The National that SMEs in the tourism industry in Milne Bay had suffered badly due to the Covid-19.
“I like to see more guidelines on how we deal with that funding for the SMEs,” he said.
“We need to have a set guidelines as to how we can help them get off the ground.
“We are trying our best to support them and it’s not easy.”
Numa said the tourism industry was innovative and if given the resources, the operators would come up with alternatives.
He said tourism was a flourishing industry for Milne Bay until the Covid-19 struck and they were hoping that Government funding would be equally distributed to support these small businesses.
“Tourism is a big industry in our province and unfortunately, the Covid-19 has affected it and our people have struggled,” he said.
“We are hoping that the government funding that’s coming through can help our SMEs involved in tourism to look at alternatives during this time.
“Most of our tourism activities were based on cruise ships so we had operators providing the products which was enabling employment of our young people.”