Thank you Marape, Duma for SME support

I COMMEND Prime Minister James Marape and the Cabinet’s support in the annual budget funding of K200 million in growing the local economy through the small to medium enterprise sector in the country.
I commend Minister for Commerce and Industry William Duma who is a strong advocate and supporter of the sector.
Real leaders are the servant of the people and Marape and Duma are doing great things for the people.
Now we have K80 million at the National Development Bank (NDB) which is good news.
The NDB has some of the best programmes in place to grow the local economy but due to inadequate funding from the previous governments, the programmes have been halted.
One such programme is the stret pasin stoa scheme which was launched in 2014 and attracted 5,000 applicants throughout the country.
Of this 5,000, only 10 were selected on merit.
Of this 10, only a handful have been funded and a few are yet to be funded due to the inadequate funding to the bank.
With NDB’s vibrant board and management, it can now roll out this programme.
The stret pasin stoa scheme had made many Papuan New Guineans millionaires in the 80s and 90s.
China is a fastest growing economy in the world which PNG can learn from because Chinese nationals are retail shop operators and owners around the world.
The money they make is sent back to grow their economy.
There is Chinatown in New York to Buenos Aires, from Melbourne to Calcutta and from Lae to Mt Hagen.
They don’t do manufacturing but they operate simple retail shops and make money.

Michel Tei, Mt Hagen