Lawlessness bad for businesses

MORE effort needs to be put into addressing law and order issues for the five new major resource projects that the Government is banking to actually boost the economy and create more jobs.
Papua New Guinea is the largest economy among the Pacific Islands and offers enormous trade and investment potential.
Key investment prospects are in infrastructure development, a growing urban-based middle-class market, abundant natural resources in mining, oil and gas, forestry, and fisheries.
Concerns about personal security have been noticeable in the country for many years.
Personal security figures regularly in travel advisories issued by foreign governments.
International news coverage of PNG is often about violence or crime, reinforcing the country’s reputation as a dangerous and lawless place. The main security threats are non-traditional, including urban crime, violence, corruption, arms trafficking, border protection, resource poaching, climate change, natural disasters, and transnational crime.
There are no single and straight-forward recommendations or formula to reduce law and order problems anywhere in the world.
PNG is confronted with pressing socio-economic, political, legal and administrative issues with unemployment a concern.
Unemployment is considered to be one of the prime social evils that is affecting our lives today.
Its economic impact is not as important as its social impact.
Most people in society today depend upon jobs to earn their living.
Therefore, any situation which negatively affects the jobs of people will affect the fabric of the entire society as a whole. And this is such in PNG, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force.
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, are available for work and have taken active steps to find work over a period of time.
For PNG, the government can only help eradicate this epidemic through promoting investment in the private sector.
Jobs are created when there is investment in the country.
To make PNG more competitive and attractive for investors (including smallholders) requires improving roads and other infrastructure and utilities, affordable telecommunication access, ports and shipping services, seriously addressing crime, corruption and excessive red-tape and public sector inefficiency and boosting literacy, numeracy and technical, vocational and professional training.
Prime Minister James Marape recently said the five projects in various stages of negotiations with operators included the Papua LNG (K43 billion), P’nyang (K151.1 billion), Pasca (K1.7 billion), Wafi -Golpu (K19 billion) and the restart of Porgera gold mine.
Other resource projects in the pipeline include the proposed Frieda River in West Sepik and the Yandera project in Madang.
His predecessor, Peter O’Neill, also recently said that there were no jobs available and families were suffering.
“Let’s focus on the cost of living, get inflation under control, create more jobs by ensuring we have a conducive business environment,” he said.
It makes sense to attract Foreign direct investments (FDI) and PNG governments has been attempting that since Independence.
FDI accounts for a whopping 11 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product and contributes more than 80 million jobs worldwide.
With the establishment of a new Ministry of Trade and International Investment, the Government is hoping to change that part of our economic legacy for the better.
Marape and his Minister Richard Maru last year announced from Japan that they would pull out all stops to attract foreign investment on a global basis.
The country’s business environment is conducive and can grow with the support from investors but the government must address issues on law and order to lure investors.