Empower people, CPAs urged

By ANCILLA WRAKUALE
ACCOUNTANTS have been challenged to share their knowledge and skills with ordinary people to empower them in wealth-creation and to improve their lives.
Managing director of Agro Marketing and newspaper columnist Tiri Kuibakul said this at the joint annual conference for Practicing Accountants (CPA PNG).
Kuibakul spoke on “empowering ordinary Papua New Guineans to create wealth through business and financial management training”.
“The accounting fraternity needs to design and deliver simple training programmes to enable ordinary people to make money,” he said.
Kuibakul said this would enable the people to become active players in economic development, instead of being passive spectators and beneficiaries of handouts.
He said despite increased economic growth, majority of the people were yet to see real tangible changes in their lives.
Kuibakul said human development in PNG was still low according to the social indicators by the United Nations Human Development Index.
He said development was about raising people’s living standard and not about building new fancy office complexes.
“PNG is a resource rich country filled with cash-poor people,” Kuibakul said.
He said despite increased economic growth, the benefits had not trickled down to the majority of the people thus increasing the gap between the “have” and the “have-nots’.
Kuibakul said after 36 years of independence, 105 of businesses were nationally-owned while the remaining 90% was dominated by foreigners.
He said the idea of giving money to relatives will not work as they would continue to ask for money.
They should be empowered with ideas and information so that they could be able to make money and improve their living standards, Kuibakul said.
The conference themed “wealth creation, management, sustainability” ended last Friday with more than 1,000 participants.
It was the first time for CPA PNG to have five international speakers