Time for a change

EXPERIENCE teaches us that political interference into the running of public corporate institutions in Papua New Guinea has never paid out on all fronts and in about all occasions.
The demise of PNG Harbours Board, National Provident Fund, PNG Banking Corporation, to name just three, verify this statement.
Had a lesson been learnt in any way, we would in this modern era endeavor to shut out completely any chance of political meddling.
In 1977, the people of Madang were given a new horizon in their aspirations to progress as a province and as a people when a national government policy initiative had the Madang Development Corporation (MDC) established to extend Madang’s reach into the commercial sphere, and not just politics.
The MDC supposedly was the commercial arm of the provincial government which was to generate revenue and cultivate any return into bringing about socioeconomic development for Madang.
East New Britain Development Corporation (ENBDC) was set up for the East New Britain people, Nokondi Holdings for Eastern Highlanders, and Bougainville Development Corporation for Bougainvilleans, as the wave of this political thinking swept through.
As a matter of fact, the MDC story is a sad one.
It is high time the traditional notion of the provincial government owning exclusively a provincial business or socioeconomic development arm be breached, allowing for indigenous enterprises to share in the ownership.
It will be exciting to have features of public-private partnership (PPP) expressed in this particular sense where the risks, costs and benefits are strategically shared among partners.
It only requires a potential PPP party – Madang provincial government or a private indigenous Madang entity – to propose and promote the concept as a first step.

Advocate of change