PNG’s 21st century gold mine

IF PNG is to truly compete in the new e-commercial, all-digital global economy, it is imperative that we create a conducive environment to generate, develop and export ideas.
Consider what the Uni­ted States exports to the world; they are mostly ideas.
A staggering 42% of American exports are in the form of movies, music, software, books, and a range of other examples of intellectual capital.
Here in PNG, there are no genuine tax incentives to entice the creation of a venture capital culture.
Therefore, the obstacles facing ideas or creative people are even greater.
This is a critical point, and one that needs the attention of the government of the day at Waigani.
In the US, if you have an idea for a new internet product, thousands of venture capitalists are prepared to offer you millions of speculative dollars based on the idea alone.
Money is handed over on the business plan itself, with clear exit strategies for venture capitalists, but it is very different for us in PNG
The 21st century is the millennium of ideas and PNG is in the midst of a great gold-rush, except this time, ideas are the gold!
Everybody is capable of creating ideas and claiming their piece of the pie.
So I challenge us all to train our minds to create more ideas to make ourselves and our nation wealthy.
In pursuit of generating and producing ideas, we must build on these four critical foundations: creating, defining, packaging and selling of ideas.
Wise men say that “if you chase the god of knowledge, the god of wealth will follow”.
This is also to say that if you love what you do and have a passion for genera­ting ideas, the rest will follow.

Martin Emilio
Via email