Bougainville govt will receive K20mil for SMEs

PRIME Minister James Marape says the Autonomous Bougainville Government will receive K20 million of the K200 million allocated for small to medium enterprise (SME) loans.
He announced this after last Friday’s joint supervisory body (JSB) meeting in Arawa.
This is one of nine resolutions of the Arawa JSB meeting.
Marape said 10 per cent of the K200 million allocated to Bank South Pacific (BSP) and National Development Bank (NDB) for SME loans would be channeled to Bougainville.
He said the allocation for Bougainville SMEs would be launched during the first-ever Bougainville economic and investment summit in Arawa on May 5-6. The summit was one of the nine resolutions.
Marape got the ball rolling with a K3 million support for the summit.
He made a commitment to attend the conference.
“We commit K3 million to assist the investment seminar,” Marape said.
“We will do our best to bring Port Moresby-based businesses to come and have a look around to partner locals.”
He said the K20 million earmarked by the Government for Bougainville SME loans would be launched at the May summit.
This represents 10 per cent of the K200mil given by Government for SME loans this year.