Economist outlines 6 problems affecting PNG

WESTPAC economist Justin Smirk says there six problems affecting the national economy and businesses which are: shortage of expertise and skills, foreign exchange, security, unreliable utilities, lack of government capacity and regulatory uncertainty.
“Addressing these issues will have a significant positive impact on PNG’s economy,” he said.
Smirk, Westpac Australia’s senior economist, told a business meeting in Lae yesterday that they were the top six issues affecting the economy and businesses.
But despite the setbacks that business houses in the country face, he believes that they will get through all.
“In light of the Puma issue, people outside looking in will say, ‘What’s going on in PNG?’ It’s not normal that it happens a lot to the economy, systems, businesses and the culture. But they will still get through,” he said.
Businesses in PNG always find a way to overcome problems, such as sourcing fuel supply from overseas during the recent crisis.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s good and you try to do a lot of things to try to fix things, because if you did, things would be so much better and you wouldn’t have to do so much work later on,” Smirk said.
Smirk is the newly-appointed director for Westpac Economics for the region and is looking forward to setting up an economics team for Westpac PNG.