Call for more help for small businesses

 A SMALL businessman who collects and sells empty bottles in Lae has called for tougher policing of laws protecting people such as him.

Joseph Mand, who has been in the business for 21 years, claims that there is widespread abuse of Government’s commercial, 

industrial and small to medium enterprises regulations.

He called on Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru, provincial governors and relevant agencies to seriously implement monitoring and reporting mechanisms 

to curb illegal practices, especially by foreigners.

Mand, a former Lae Ward Six councillor, said like other small aspiring and hardworking local businessmen around the country, he was losing out to competition from foreigners who were engaging in businesses which should be strictly reserved for locals.

“Foreigners are taking over businesses like beer shops, scrap metal, empty-bottle collection and kai-bars,” he said.

“I even witnessed a Chinese driving a PMV bus. This is crazy and wrong. But they are taking advantage of the lack of government scrutiny.

“I now have strong competition from an expatriate who is buying bottles at a higher price. 

“I am not talking about only myself but other Papua New Guineans.”

Mand started the bottle-collecting business in 1993 and says at a time when the SME is being promoted by the Government to a whole new level, there is lack of policing on the ground.