SME policy good for country

 ALLOW me to air my view regarding the launching of the Government’s Small Medium Enterprise (SME) policy. 

I am a stanch follower of the SME and always supported the Minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry for his backing towards this sector when he was the managing director for the National Development Bank before he became a politician.

When the O’Neill Government was formed after the 2012 general election, Maru was appointed the Minister. 

Since SME was his brain child, he starts working on it as soon as he attains that Ministry. 

There were a lot of paid advertisements in the daily papers about the SME in 2013, for example getting rid of the Chinese operating restaurants in Papua New Guinea so that Papua New Guineans can apply for such business, however nothing has been done so far regarding that. 

The minister was on the right path during the first year of taking over the ministry regarding SME, however all this has faded away has the years has gone by. 

Considering the time factor, to grow SME from 50,000 to 500,000 by 2030 and to increase PNG’s ownership of the economy from the current 10 per cent to 70 per cent is a mammoth task if the policy is just launched this year. 

I believe the minister is a person with version that’s why he put something together which is called SME today. 

Maybe the delay is politically motivated or due to situations which the country is facing.

However, I strongly believe that if the policy was launched earlier in 2013, it will reap greater benefits because it will be in the right track to achieve its goals. 

In addition, the issue of writs is 13 months away, and from past experiences, most of the plans and policy enacted by pervious government is not always fully implemented by the new government after the elections.

SME Observer

Port Moresby