Agriculture is the way, Mori says
THE agriculture sector should be the main area of concentration for setting up small-medium enterprises (SMEs), says Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori.
Speaking during a foreign investment and SME roundtable discussion during the second Speaker’s Investment Summit this week, Mori said: “At least 75-80 per cent of the country’s population lives in the rural areas and the best way to involving those people to create SMEs is through the agriculture sector.
“To create SMEs and have inclusion for people in the rural areas is through agriculture and there is no other way.”
Mori said other sectors such as the extractive industries do not benefit all parts of the society and the country.
“The influence or number of SMEs that are created or the opportunities that are available are only confined to the immediate peripheries of those project areas.
“It does not really radiate out to the bulk of the population of the country.”
Mori said the earthquake in the Highlands in February last year had a significant impact on Papua New Guinea’s economy, especially in the mining and extractive industry, impacting on revenue.
“We all have a collective duty to expand the economic base and this will come with the creation of SMEs,” he said.
“I advocate on the use of agriculture and we must look at how to revive our agriculture and get our people participating in cash economy in the industry.”
Mori said in the past, national plantation management agencies were in place and engaged by the national government but they collapsed.
“The way to do that and also engage a lot of our people and get plantations back is through the cooperative model.”
The cooperative model involves dividing plantations into different blocks and that will create multiple SMEs in the agriculture sector.
2 comments
Vast number of nations population live in rural areas and are depending entirely on agriculture for food and cash. We can convert a method of agriculture activities from traditional to modern at the larger scale. However the hindrance is lack of government intervention by not injecting the funds directly to the farmers and organised bodies in the rural communities.
Rural population depend entirely on agriculture for food and cash. They can convert the method of agriculture activities from traditional to modern at the larger scale for higher earnings. However,lack of government intervention is an hindrance. The government must inject funds directly to the recognised farmers in the rural communities. Burry the money in the soil and the soil will produce what you expect.
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