Take back ownership of resources, says minister

NEW Minister for State Enterprises Sasindran Muthuvel says the first step in taking back the country as alluded to by Prime Minister James Marape is to maintain ownership of all national assets.
“There is no other way to take back the country and the economy, the only way is to take back all SOEs and own them for the people,” Muthuvel said.
He said he believed the SOEs were important entities that helped in nation building and the country could not afford lose them to the private sector and to foreign-owned organisations.
He said what was needed was for a complete overhaul of these entities so that they could run as businesses without political interference to garner the best practices so that the SOEs could be successful and earn for the state.
“We intend to reduce political interference in SOEs,” the West New Britain regional MP said.
He admitted that it would not be an easy task but he would make sure he repaid the trust of the prime minister by ensuring SOEs performed well and continued outgoing Minister William Duma’s existing programmes like Kumul Agriculture and other reforms.
“The 8.5 million people of this country have trust in these SOEs and the ministry will support that. Although several SOEs have been moved to other ministries, Kumul Consolidated Holdings is still custodian to the SOEs until the KCH Act is amended,” he said.
Muthuvel said while the SOEs were expected to declare dividends, the Government needed to pay outstanding bills to the SOEs like PNG Power and Telikom so they were able to use the funds to make improvements and declare revenues.
He said SOEs like PNG Power, Telikom and Air Niugini were not only business-oriented but are also contributing to nation building and serving the people as well.
Muthuvel said he supported Government involvement in the business sector in providing services for the people but also being more effective in service delivery.
He said maintaining ownership of SOEs was crucial for the country to be in control of its destiny.
Similar sentiments were also shared by Duma, who said many successful countries like China and city-state Singapore depended on their SOEs.