THE INSIDER

PNG BUSINESS AT A GLANCE

Papua New Guinea is racing into a new world of

ecommerce due to a confluence of factors, including the arrival of the Coral Sea Cable, the Kumul Submarine Cable and the pandemic, which has forced more businesses to go online.

The cables will speed up the internet and make it cheaper in a country where cash has traditionally been king.

Tapioca Delight, a company that makes cakes and offers corporate catering, is at the forefront of the move towards ecommerce, becoming the first small-to-medium business (SME) to accept online credit and debit card payments.

Bank South Pacific’s Belinda Manning says that the main challenge lies in bringing people in from the fringes of the economy who may never have used ecommerce before.

The World Bank expects PNG’s economy to contract this year, says the bank’s PNG country economist Ilyas Sarsenov.

“Overall, we expect that the real GDP growth will decline by about four percentage points to a negative area this year,” he says.

Sarsenov says both the resource and non-resource sectors of the economy have been hit.

The bank’s forecast is partly based on domestic factors, especially disputes around licence expansion for Porgera gold mine. Global factors (due to COVID-19) will also have a significant effect on PNG’s economy for the rest of this year.

Ok Tedi Mining has announced strong profits and dividends – important because it accounts for over four per cent of PNG’s economy.

The company generated 754 million kina in after-tax profit, which was 288 million kina higher than in 2018/19. The company paid 400 million kina in dividends, and says it contributed 4.1 per cent of PNG’s GDP.

Invest In Me (invest-in-me. org) is the first crowdfunding platform developed by Papua New Guineans for Papua New Guineans. It’s the brainchild of Christopher Vagalia, an accountant and entrepreneur, who says he has often seen projects fail to get off the ground due to a lack of capital.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or business venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people. It has seen the emergence of international crowdfunding platforms such as

Kickstarter and Go Fund Me. But PNG has lacked a platform of its own, until now.

Pepsi is flowing again in PNG with Pacific

Industries winning the franchise earlier this year for the soft drink. The Pepsi brand now sits alongside Pacific Industries’ local offerings such as GoGoCola and Gold Spot Cola.

Pacific Industries director, Everett Chue, says: “We were negotiating the contract for almost a year and, in order to become Pepsiapproved, all our facilities had to be audited. That was an eight-month process of Pepsi reviewing our factory (in Rabaul), making recommendations and then us having to upgrade to international standards.”

Pacific Industries is not just manufacturing soft drinks. Under a new kiosk program, it is helping a generation of Papua New Guineans launch their own small businesses.

The company is building three-metre by three-metre kiosks: they are secure, lockable mini-canteens, with power, lights, fridges and freezers so that people can start their own roadside businesses.

“First, we identify an entrepreneur; someone who is interested in starting their own business. Then we help them find a location that will have high traffic and be viable, then we lease this kiosk to them for free, essentially, as long as they adhere to certain terms like not selling directly competing products,” Chue says.

So far, the program has produced 60-plus kiosks in the Port Moresby area.

Papua New Guinea’s business community is getting behind the fight to eradicate violence

against women, which has spiked in PNG and the rest of the world since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Gianluca Rampolla, UN Coordinator in PNG, says: “Violence against women and children is a scourge. It is the underbelly of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The issue was brought to a head a few months ago when hundreds of people rallied against gender-based violence in Port Moresby following the murder of mother-of-two, Jenelyn Kennedy, 19.

“There has never been a more pressing time for addressing

FSV (family and sexual violence) than right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,” says Lesieli Taviri, chair of the Business Coalition For Women (BCFW) and Origin Energy’s CEO. A survey by the BCFW and the

World Bank found that 94% of business leaders in PNG believe their staff have experienced family and sexual violence.

It is estimated that 10% of a company’s payroll is lost to family and sexual violence in PNG.

Following Jenelyn Kennedy’s murder, the business community in PNG has taken action including organising vigils, wearing black in support of those who suffer from gender-based violence, sharing messages on social media, pledging commitments and signing online petitions.

Bank South Pacific (BSP) launched a #BlackThursdays campaign to spread awareness of gender-based violence and to generate a change in attitudes. Many other companies, including Oil Search, have been involved with BCFW and/or have developed initiatives against gender-based violence.

Earlier this year, Pacific Towing, a division of the Steamships Group, implemented Gender Smart Safety, a workplace program developed by the

BCFW, and also subscribed to

Bel isi PNG.