Govt plans to buy businesses for locals

THE Government has a submission to buy small to medium businesses owned by foreigners and give them to Papua New Guineans, Commerce and Industry Minister Sam Basil says.
“We will present this submission in the next Parliament that the SME (small-medium enterprise) businesses like trade stores owned by foreigners in settlements and villages will be bought off by people residing in the vicinity of these SME activities,” he said.
“We will single out these trade stores throughout the districts that we have allowed foreigners to come in, set up these trade stores and creating their empires here.
“People are feeling that we the Government is letting them down.”
Basil said they were careful not to rush that submission.
“If the Government makes the decision now for the foreigners to return the trade stores, we will have to work on a time frame, maybe in 24 months’ time as locals will not be ready to buy them if the foreigners sold them,” he said.
“And so we have to plan of how much money for SMEs will be budgeted r in the 2022 budget if we want locals to obtain these funds to buy off these foreign-owned businesses.
“Because we (Government) have to buy them and give them to the locals where these stores are located.
“We must give the trade stores to the people in the vicinity.
“But we have to be very careful to translate that change down.”