Women make up 98pc of market’s vendors

ABOUT 98 per cent of the 500 vendors who use the Madang town market daily are women, market manager Otto Janjett says.
“Most women are highly involved in the informal sector of sewing clothes, cooking food and even selling garden produce to make ends meet,” he added.
Janjett said the vendors comprised of highlanders and residents of coastal areas.
He said the town market was a business arm of the Madang Urban local level government.
“We have to generate income using the facility,” Janjett said.
“So there is a fee imposed on all vendors using the market daily.
“Highlanders are charged K5 because they are using the bench to sit inside the building to do their business while the coastal vendors are charged K3 as they sit on the concrete cement in the open space to sell their goods.”
He added that security at the market area was tight and that all the street vendors complied with the market rules.
Japanese ambassador Watanabe Nobuyuki said he was impressed that the people of Madang were taking good care of the market facility that was built for them through a grant from the Japanese Government.
“It is good to see that the people are putting the market to good use since 2016,” he added.
He said the Japanese government looked forward to support the Madang people through their partnership programmes in the future.