People buying local products help boost jobs, says manager

ENCOURAGING people to buy PNG-made products should be a focus for established companies in the country to ensure jobs are created to empower local people, a company manager says. Puma Energy national marketing manager Gabriel Laka said when large companies started supporting PNG-made products, it would also encourage people to buy them. “When you support PNG-made products, you are actually encouraging downstream processing, creating employment and wealth and encouraging small to medium enterprise (SME) development,” he said. Laka said if Papua New Guineans could support PNG-made products this would create wealth for the people as this would support local industry. “When you walk into a store to buy a product, make sure to look for the PNG-made product and buy it,” he said. When you do that, you are contributing to creating wealth and employment.” Laka said right now, most Papua New Guinean consumers did not consider this factor and this meant lost opportunities in employment creation and strengthening the economy.
He said Puma Energy, with its product Puma Gas, was a 100 per cent PNG-made product which Puma Energy was now distributing to depots around the country which were run by small business owners. Laka said the National Government was not doing enough at the national level to promote PNG-made products. “It (Government) needs to encourage downstream processing so that we can ease of some of our major imports and concentrate on producing and distributing our own products,” he said. Laka called on professionals and businesses to promote Papua New Guinea-made products and educate people about its importance.