Laws affecting SMEs

PAPUA New Guinea’s business regulations are not conducive for the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) sector, says International Finance Corporation (IFC) senior operations officer Jonathan Kirby.
Kirby said currently PNG ranked 108 out of 190 countries in the world for the ease of doing business and 143rd for starting a new business and there was a need for regulatory reform.
He said both the public and the private sector needed to take an active role in developing achievable regulations which needed to follow through to implementation.
“PNG is ranked 108th out of 190 countries in 2019 and if you look at all the other different indicators, PNG in general is in the lower half of the world in rankings,” Kirby said.
“For starting a business, PNG is ranked 143, for construction permits, it is at 124 and there are other areas where PNG is lagging behind as well. “This means that there are other countries that have made reforms and have stepped in front of PNG.
“What this says is that the current business regulatory environment is not very conducive to SMEs.
“Regulators who make reforms and continue to make reforms will help in the progress of business rankings and make the situation easier for their SMEs and other businesses in the country,” Kirby said. “Good business regulations are important and the private sector also needs to be involved with a revival of public and private sector dialogue working on achievable strategies which the government endorses and follows through to implementation.”
Kirby said it was important to understand and learn from the experiences of other countries and what they had done to make their reforms.