Setavo: Govt should support local firms develop towns

By ABIGAIL APINA
A LOCAL level government president in East New Britain has invited business people to suggest ways of helping people in and outside the town areas.
Boniface Setavo, president of Sinivit LLG in Pomio district and deputy ENB governor told a gathering at Warongoi: “Towns flourish not because of the government but the private sector.”
He said there were a number of towns in ENB which had been mapped out under the regional development framework which were not growing.
“The government should concentrate on regulatory matters and leave the rest to the business community,”he said.
Setavo said there was no indigenous business community to drive such development and he requested those who had business skills, discipline, determination and the love of doing something the businessman’s ways to help.
He said the provincial government’s 10-year strategic development plan to 2021 called on citizens to “think, talk, and act educated and literate, healthy, wealthy and living in a socially conducive society”.
“This will assist us to develop a culture of being that is self reliant and entrepreneurial to address tools for a higher quality of life,” Setavo said.
He said the provincial government appreciated the alliance of businesses with the government to realise such vision.
Setavo suggests that the national government and ENB provincial government seriously look at policies to maximise the utilisation of forest resources.
He said forest resources in ENB had been extracted for more than 50 years and the current policy did not favour citizens who wanted to build homes and create business and employment.
“I am patriotic to say that such policy only favours foreigners and not locals,” he said.