Businesses rate stimulus package ‘ineffective’

BUSINESSES have rated the Government’s stimulus package as ineffective, according to a survey.
Papua New Guinea Business Council executive director Douveri Henao said this during the release of the market condition survey yesterday.
“The survey shows that close to a year after the announcement of the Government’s stimulus package, 75 per cent of businesses said it was still yet to create a positive impact on them, with 59 per cent rating the stimulus package as ‘not effective at all’,” he said.
Henao, who met with Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey last week, said there needed to be a clear definition on what a stimulus package was.
The K2 million per member of parliament, that was about K260 million, and the SME loan support of K200 million, one of them has not been effective, and so we were suggesting to relook at the financial support into the market by looking into greater details, the qualifications of businesses that would require that support.
“For example Ian Chow (owner of Lae Biscuit Company) does not technically qualify as an SME, he is a larger operator and so what would be a sort of financial support that Lae Biscuit Company would require, that other enterprises would require?” Henao said the conversation with Ling-Stuckey was about working towards a much broader strategy in identifying which of those businesses that were suffering and the type of intervention they required. “Interventions may range from loan repayments, overdrafts, can a grant system alleviate or support that loan repayment, and that will really depend on the performance of businesses,” he said.