Address pressing issues, Marape told

OPPOSITION Leader Douglas Tomuriesa is urging Prime Minister James Marape to fix pressing issues in the country to ensure long-term investments are secured.
Tomuriesa was commenting on what the Swire Group chairman Barnaby Swire recently said about the need to fix the law and order situation, power supply, regulation, and education – things that well-established corporations look for to invest in PNG.
Tomuriesa said: “It’s one thing to misinterpret a clear-cut statement but it’s another to misinterpret it and use it to promote yourself. While many of us read Swire Group’s chairman Barnaby Swire’s comments on the need for stability in our power and law and order to support business, the prime minister must have read that as a need for political stability.”
He said Marape and his “loyal social media hounds” tried to spin the comments and paint a picture that stability in tenure and the prime ministership” was needed.
“In fact, his (Swire’s) statement was far from that. It was a serious wake-up call for Marape and a sobering cry for help from one
of our longstanding business houses.”
He said Swire’s comments reported in The National were “massively important” to gauge how big companies were thinking behind closed doors. “If I was the prime minister, I would’ve taken notes of what he was saying, kept quiet, and got straight to work to ensure that the next time he’s in town, to launch a multi-million-Kina project, (so that he sees the improvements the Government has made).”
He said Swire stressed the need for PNG to have an educated workforce to support the needs of businesses.
“That couldn’t be truer, especially when the government is busy trying to define employment, we still need to equip the Papua New Guineans of tomorrow with the necessary skills to work for these companies.”