Official urges people to back locally-owned firms

PAPUA New Guineans need to support locally-owned businesses, an official says.
Telikom PNG Ltd acting chief executive officer Amos Tepi said competition was good for the telecommunications market but the onus was on citizens to give support to local businesses.
“As we can see, some of the competitors who are here are taking money out of the country,” Tepi told The National.
“Though people can say they are putting something back, but not really in a big way, the money has gone out.
“Telikom is a household name and bmobile is PNG-owned.
“When you have competitors come in, it’s good for the business but, we also need to know that the people own this company (Telikom).
“So our support should be given back to our company.
Vodafone will soon operate in the county.
Vodafone Fiji chief commercial director Ronald Prasad said PNG had a huge market potential for a fourth mobile network operator.
Prasad said PNG still had low mobile communications and internet penetration levels in the market.
He said Vodafone, which was currently rolling out a Greenfield network in PNG, would soon be operational later in the year.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Telstra chief executive officer Andy Penn visited the country last month to discuss the planned purchase of Digicel Pacific, according to a report.
A report in the Australian Financial Review this week said Penn had visited PNG to discuss with its political leaders its planned purchase of Digicel Pacific.
Minister for Information and Communication Timothy Masiu confirmed Penn’s visit, but declined to disclose the purpose other than to say, “We will prepare a statement when the time is right.”