Policy must protect informal sector: Association

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
THE review of the National Informal Economy Policy 2011-2015 should include measures to protect informal sector vendors from police brutality.
Sana Dokopa, president of the Port Moresby Umbrella Association at Gordon market, raised this during a workshop organised by the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC).
“It is our constitutional right to get engaged in this informal economy and yet we were being deprived many times by the actions of police and others,” she said.
She told The National that there were instances when women at the markets were bashed by police officers and had their market produce and money removed.
Dokopa acknowledged the initiative taken by the Department of Community Development to review the National Informal Economy Policy 2011-2015.
CIMC project officer and economist Jeremiah Wenogo said the objective of the workshop was get the views of the people on plans to review the policy.
“We will take note of your views,” he said.
Meanwhile, Office of Urbanisation director and chairman Max Kep said the informal economy allowed a lot of people to do something useful to earn their living.
“Our formal economy system is not enough to sustain our people’s livelihoods. So the informal economy has given them an avenue to be self-reliant,” he said.