Chamber pledges to support govt

By DALE LUMA
BUSINESSES in the country are ready to help the Government implement containment measures for the coronavirus, Papua New Guinea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PNGCCI) president John Leahy says.
Responding to The National on how businesses would operate and its role during the state of emergency, Leahysaid businesses would be hit hard by the virus as operations would be negatively impacted but they would work with the Government as part of its Covid-19 response.
“The business community will be very much negatively affected by this crisis so there is not much we can do,” he said.
“But we stand ready to cooperate with government to implement whatever containment measures are necessary.
“In this regard, we think the government needs to take a hard line.
“If they delay like even a day or two, it might be too late and PNG will suffer massive loss of life as has happened in other countries already, and much more to come.”
Leahy said the first confirmed case was just the tip of the iceberg.
“There are many more, hundreds, if not thousands that we don’t know about,” he said.
“We need to put in place restrictions and other measures to ensure that the virus does not spread among PNG communities.”
Leahy said PNGCCI’s perspective on the declaration of a state of emergency was that they supported the strong stance the state had taken.
“The alternative would be much worse for business in the medium to long term,” he said. “In my own business, we all have laptops and access to the internet and going forward, much more work will be done this way.
“It will require some bosses to learn to trust their people.
“I am very confident that can be achieved in PNG, but we do need DataCo to get on with the implementation of the national transmission network.”