Photo credit: Goilala District News
Managing and conducting business activities in the Central Province particularly in the Goilala District is quite demanding and challenging, according to a business entrepreneur who operates in the remote mountainous region of Central province.
Billy Mang from the Auga Dilava valley that surrounds the entire Tolokuma Gold Mine in the Woitape LLG, said that the nature of doing business is challenging, incurred with the hefty cost of chatter flights from Port Moresby into the remote mountainous region.
He said business activities in the area is mainly trade store setups and prices of store goods are expensive with the mark up price trade store owners put up to recoup from the thousands of kinas spent on air freight charges.
The area is only accessed by air transport so that leaves the freighting of goods from Port Moresby dependable by air. He said a charter costs K2000-K3000 depending of various airline operators with freight charges also varying from K15-K20 per kg.
‘’So, it leaves no choice for trade store owners to put a hefty markup price on their store goods,’’ he said.
He said a can of fish ranges from K15-K20, while a 1kg packet of rice ranges from K25-K30 and a packet of noodles is around K7.
‘’So now you have a clear picture on what I am saying on the challenges of doing business in Goilala,’’ he said.
‘’It is indeed very difficult to do business in Goilala with very high charges on dry goods transported for retailing. Most people don’t know how to calculate their selling price and markup price and as a result end up making big loses and eventually run down their operations.’’
He said one advantage they get back to business is from the alluvial activities.
‘’But yet again the same thing occurs again and again. Business runs down and they return to alluvial activities to revive their business and there is no serious intention to doing business proficiently,’’ he said.
‘’I try to do my selling price and markup and my retail price will most likely to be high considering all the costs involved.’’
He said one factor that puts business operators at risk is limited understanding to calculate markup prices. He added that this was because many of them are illiterate or have low level of education. The business setting in the area is not viable when majority of persons are selling their goods at a very cheap price without calculating all those necessary costs incurred with.
He has further called on the open MP for Goilala Casmiro Aia and the Central Governor Ms Rufina Peter to subsidize airline fees or purchase an airplane to service the people in the remote parts of this area.
