Safeguard local enterprises

THE Papua New Guinea Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sectors are being predatorily swamped by foreigners.
These people are doing businesses reserved for nationals by the PNG Investment Promotion Authority (IPA).
They are now moving into spaces such as security, hire car, private schools, law firms, accounting firms, customs clearance, hotels and lodges, building construction, road construction, and the list goes on.
Nationals will now be competing with these groups of predatory business enthusiasts who come organised and are adamant to do anything to live in PNG which they think is paradise on earth.
Ten years from now, these groups of people from foreign countries will control the MSME and SME sector as well as corporate sector of PNG with an iron fist.
Ten years from now these groups of people will pay for politicians in PNG to do, say, act and think the way they want because their political parties fundraisers and other politician support financially will come from this highly cashed up and mobilised group.
Ten years from now most of the professional jobs as well as ownership of MSME and SME sectors will be in this group of people’s hands. Nationals will be mere labourers feeding off the bones and cramps.
Our politicians do not know this reality or they are paid out to just help this group of foreign invaders into MSME and SME sectors of PNG.
Dangerous thing is that this group of people cheat the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) taxes annually, under pay our national workers, mostly do not bank in our commercial banks but own their own black bank and send their cash in kina overseas through laundering tactics.
This group of people don’t bring anything into PNG but have an internally organised network similar to gangster/drug cartel networks in PNG and thus help each other to spread business nationwide like a virus spreading at a faster rate.
PNG politicians, professionals, participants in the MSME and SME sectors including the corporate sector are under threat from this group of people.
The only legal and strategic way to do is revise all laws and government policies to address the above situation.
This would safeguard the MSME and SME sectors while empowering our national businessmen and women to have a bigger stake in all businesses operating in PNG.
Otherwise we will continue to go around in circles, chasing our own tails, complaining about anything and everything and remain witnesses only to the widespread organised growth and takeover of all MSME and SME businesses in all 22 provinces in the next decade or two.
The onus is on the Marape-Steven Government to put together an SME Authority to regulate all operations of MSME and SME sectors in PNG and strictly police the reserved businesses list.
The authority should ensure ministers and senior bureaucrats don’t conspire to cheat our nation of employment, empowerment, taxes and other opportunities in this sector.

Samson Komati
PNG TTG Inc