Muthuvel aims to lift standard

STATE Enterprises Minister Sasindran Muthuvel says he wants cheaper, better communication services from the State-owned companies for the people of Papua New Guinea.
Muthuvel, in response to questions raised on social media regarding communications, he said he remained open to achieve this using the existing assets.
Muthuvel said he was committed to protecting the local entities such as Telikom PNG, bmobile and PNG DataCo and local jobs.
He said he had taken on the role as minister to make a difference and carry out the Government’s reform agenda.
In reference to the use of Huawei, Muthuvel said the Chinese tech giant was the current communications equipment vendor.
“All major communication companies in PNG – bmobile, Telikom and Digicel – use Huawei.
“The two State-owned mobile networks (bmobile and Telikom) are both Huawei equipped.
“I was asked by the Marape-Steven Government to reform the state-owned enterprises and I remain dedicated.
“This is an enormous task, given years of interference and poor decision making.
“If the social media misfits want to criticise me, then fine. Come to my office and tell me in person,” he said.
Muthuvel said the government owed the Exim Bank of China K1.6 billion (US$470m) – K706.92 ($200m) for NBN1 and K954.34m (US$270m) for the Kumul undersea cable.
He said there was also a need for Telikom (4G) and bmobile (2G and 3G) to integrate their networks and operating systems to create a more efficient system and better service for the people.
He said when the government took the loan from Exim bank all projects were done by Huawei and Telikom and bmobile saddled with Huawei’s equipment and left them no choice but to go to them for network integration.