As part of the government’s strategy to re-invest back into the rural areas, the Department of Treasury Secretary Dairi Vele has urged companies to look beyond Port Moresby to do business, and begin their investments in outside centres.
According to Vele, businesses should branch out to the outside centres to offer people more services.
He said, “The Marape government is still finding its feet. Part of this swift response is to develop an economic stimulus package which as much as possible tries to put money into pockets.”
Secretary Vele said that because of the restrictions and lockdowns that COVID has imposed on many cities, the private sector has limited selling their goods and products to neighbouring towns. He added that the reason why they started investing in rural areas was to encourage businesses to work there and to offer their services.
“Sometimes the private sector focuses too much on the urban areas,” he said. “We need to find ways to try and encourage them to get out into some of the other parts of PNG.”
Mr Value added that the concept of special economic zones in countries such as China has worked successfully, therefore telling businesses that, “say if you come and do business here we’ll make it much easier for you.”
“That’s what the special economic zone is trying to achieve,” he said. “We think it’s a good idea and we hope that a lot of these companies also take the opportunity to go and operate out that way.”
