SOES play important role in ecomony

 STATE-owned entities play an important role in the PNG economy and cannot be compared with the private sector, says Telikom PNG chief executive officer Michael Donnelly.

Commenting on Telikom’s latest developments, he said the media and private sector often criticised SOEs but it was important for people to understand that they had a different mandate.

“They have got to provide a service but they also got to do a whole bunch of other things, it’s not just about generating profit for shareholders,” he said. 

“SOE’s are compared with private sector organisations and it’s important for people to understand that they have a different mandate in a way. We have all sorts of corporation responsibilities, employment, regional employment, a whole bunch of things that you can’t necessarily load onto private sector organisations.

“I believe SOES add a lot of value to the PNG economy and at some point in time, you may not need them to be state-owned but depending on the evolution of the economy.

“SOEs are often criticised but the mandate is different. Yes, they got to deliver efficient services, they’ve got to be profitable.

“So we’re not often comparing apples with apples but apples to oranges, but they do need to be efficient, they do need to be well managed and well governed.”

He said that running an SOE was fairly complicated because it was different to private sector business.