Rating is sad but true, council says

By DALE LUMA
THE low rating of Port Moresby – 138 out of 140 liveable cities in the world – is a sad reflection of truth in the country, according to the PNG Manufacturers Council.
Chief executive officer Chey Scovell told The National that the costs of living and doing business are high.
“It’s unnecessary but it’s present,” he said.
“The constant inability to get our State procurement right continues to burden the cost of business and living.
“So long as we keep paying exorbitant amounts for poor quality trade related infrastructure, we won’t see reductions in costs.
“The additional fact that the lion’s share of work is tendered out to foreign firms that are using almost nil local labour.
“Nil local inputs is hurting our future.
“When they finish their projects there is no legacy here – no skilled labour, no senior staff that are bankable to our banks to forge their own way. It’s a horrid disaster to be honest.”
Scovell said roads and pathways were a disgrace, and “well-maintained houses and yards are now ugly, cramped concrete high residential apartments, or dilapidated (almost composting) houses and unkept yards”.
“I’ve walked the back streets and drains of Boroko for more than 30 years,” he said.
“It is habitable, it is liveable, but it’s hostile, it’s depressing and it’s anything but desirable.
“I offer that our NCD governor and all those that dispute the ranking have learned to live and pass through our city without seeing it – which is what I sadly observe many of the well-off to do.”