ENB chamber shifts focus

Business

By JUNIOR UKAHA
The East New Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry has shifted its focus from looking after the interest of businesshouses in the province to one that will provide checks and balances for development projects.
President David Stein said on Friday that when elected into office last year, he had decided to open the chamber’s doors to members of the public to discuss development issues affecting the province.
“The chamber has been very quiet for a number of years regarding development issues in the province,” he said.
“One of the things I did was throw the doors open.
“My view is that everybody who walks into a store and spends money is part of the commerce scene.
“That means that the chamber must represent their interest too.
“I want to make sure that we had a voice for the people so I set up a WhatsApp group with couple of members on.”
Stein said the chamber kept checks on provincial government decisions and actions that would affect the business houses in the province.
He said it acted as a form of “Opposition” to the provincial government so decisions and actions were done in the best interest of the people.
“We are holding the provincial government to account in doing the right things,” Stein said.
“We have seen that a lot of things done recently were not done following procedures.
“Projects are not being tendered openly.
“A lot of things are not being done in the best interests of the people.”
Last year, Stein said the chamber would discuss with the provincial government ways to retain a share of the goods and services tax collected in the province to fund projects. Stein said the current economic situation was going to drag on for a while.
“It is rather disappointing for us in the provinces seeing astronomical amounts being spent on major projects in Port Moresby and we can’t even fix a pothole in our own province. And ENB is not alone,” he said last year.