Vision City plans special zone for SMEs

By DALE LUMA
VISION City is planning to build an area within their mega mall that will serve as a specific zone for the selling of arts and crafts for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), general manager Anderson Ting says.
“We have plans and aim to create a unique and contemporary craft street or alley within phase three of the mall development in order to create a unique shopping destination and experience,” he said.
Ting said this when responding to questions from The National if Vision City had plans to allocate space for SMEs to operate inside the mall.
He said there were currently 16 small businesses in the mall, which opened 2011 with just eight SMEs operators.
“We currently have about 16 Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs,” he said.
“When the mall was set up eight years ago, a series of eight carts were allocated to Papua New Guinean businesses.
“This was done to initiate and encourage local enterprising with minimal and some zero start-up costs except for their own trading stock.”
Ting said the initiative by the government to create a Credit Guaranteed Corporation was welcomed becomes it would help address some of the constraints faced by SMEs.
“The initiative by the government to establish a credit guaranteed corporation like in other countries is a good approach to help SMEs provided the entrepreneur can be disciplined with good management.”