Follow rules, foreigners warned

By GLORIA BAUAI
FOREIGNERS coming into the country must acquire a foreign certificate issued by the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) before starting a business, an official says.
IPA business registration officer Vanessa Vaina said banks needed to turn away foreigners who bypassed the process.
“Foreigners should not approach banks to open business accounts using work permits alone,” she said.
“Getting a company certificate is okay, but they will have to apply for a foreign certificate, for which they have to go back to the Labour and Foreign Affairs departments provide necessary documents and meet requirements.
“While we are here to promote both local and foreign businesses alike, we urge that proper processes are followed.”
This position by IPA follows a concern raised by Kina Bank’s Lae Market branch manager Susie Benson during an awareness session yesterday.
Benson said they had cases where foreigners had tried to open business accounts using only their work permits.
“They come into the country with the work permit of an established business, then later on, try to open an account with a different business name,” Vaina said.
“For us, although the visa is not a requirement for account opening, we still ask for visas to prove that the account applied for is under the same name as the issued work permit; if not, we advise them to apply for an appropriate business visa before coming back to us.”
Benson suggested that IPA consider including visas as requirement for their online registration.
“The IPA system should prompt foreigners to upload their visa so it is easy to keep tabs of their working visas or business visas.”
Another IPA spokesman, Stewart Rom, admitted that the state agency had many loopholes that needed to be addressed through collaboration with all stakeholders.
“At policy level, this information is what we need to work at closing such gaps,” he said.
“We are reviewing the way current submissions and reviewing and acceptance of foreign certificates are done. Work permits under the current government have been moved to Immigrations.
“At IPA, we note Immigration has been undergoing reforms to strengthen their structure and processes which we appreciate because overtime we have seen an abuse in our processes by foreigners who have taken advantage of such loopholes.
“A good stand by Immigration was including Internal Revenue Commission taxes and fines compliance as a part of the work permit renewals; this is a win for PNG.”