Lifting restrictions vital: Exec

By PETER ESILA
A COMPANY executive says while addressing the Covid-19 is important, lifting certain restrictions would benefit the economy.
Brian Bell Trade Electrical and Chemicals Group buyer Srinivas Ramamoorthy said: “For PNG, it is important because a lot of people at the high commissions and consulates, all travelled out before the lockdown and I believe a lot of them were not able to come back.
“And when they are in, there will be more projects coming in, more aid into the country, health, education aid – that is important for us to develop.”
Ramamoorthy made the statement during the launch of sale of the first all-in-one solar computer in Port Moresby yesterday.
“For our business, we have been doing okay,” he said.
“We haven’t had too much of a downturn actually.
“We have been one of the lucky groups where I suppose customers would want to come in and shop with us, so we haven’t had that much of an impact.
“Probably during the initial lockdown phase, there was a bit of a downturn, but we slowly went up there and seem to be doing alright.”
National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning announced this week the lifting of restrictions on travel although public health safety conditions would still apply to travellers.
Ramamoorthy said once the restrictions were lifted, things would get better for the economy.
“But, obviously, they need to take a bit of care on the isolation to ensure that there is no spread of the Covid-19.”
Meanwhile, according to a recent market survey conducted by the Business Council of PNG, 51 per cent of the businesses surveyed were able to operate in the current environment for more than 12 months, an increase from 34 per cent in first quarter of 2020.
This indicated that close to six months into the pandemic, businesses had already passed the phase where they were setting up structures and processes to navigate the challenges of the current environment.
“At present, it is likely that these structures and processes are helping to create a sense of stability in their operations, thus, enabling business leaders to make such projections,” the council said.
This improvement could also be attributed to the dialogue between business and the Government, the implementation of the self-regulation policy for businesses and the consistency of the regulations issued by the Government,” the council said.