Restart projects: Retailer

By PETER ESILA
A MAJOR retailer says the country’s big resource projects need to be brought online as soon as possible to offset the country’s struggling economy.
White and brown goods dealer Brian Bell Group chief executive officer Brian Mackellar said Papua New Guinea’s economy had for some time been in a challenging and depressed state.
“Lots of indecision around key mining and infrastructure projects and seemingly little movement on any of them. A number of the SOEs (state owned enterprises) are challenged to provide the type of service levels and performance expected by private and public sector alike,” he said.
“It would be great to see some of the large resource projects including Porgera (gold mine) getting back online quickly and others with more firm dates for action around job creation. The country needs them in order to improve the economic outlook and provide a future for the next generation.
“Business investment in many areas has been little or very cautious. We have recently seen moves by the Government to potential ease pressure on inflation through petrol subsidy and Goods and Services Tax (GST) relief on certain products.
“Globally there is still record oil prices with little relief in sight, major shipping and supply chain issue and cost increases to contend with.”