PORT MORESBY, PNS — New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan has called on the central bank, Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG), to help make Papua New Guinea more business-friendly, reports The National.
In an address to the BPNG board meeting, New Ireland province, Sir Julius also called on the government to get out of business in general and regulate key sectors and industries in the country to allow the private sector to flourish.
He also called on the government to return the control of the land to those who were closest to the land, to the provinces and, above all, the landowners.
"Only then will we have a level playing field, and only then will the fruits of development truly be delivered to those who should benefit," Sir Julius said.
He told the central bank policy makers that it was shameful how little the private sector had developed in PNG, and much of the fault for this must go to the national government.
Sir Julius was PNG's first finance minister at Independence in 1975, two years after the BPNG came into being.
"Our government seems to feel that it should be directly involved in running businesses in the country. The Government needs to work specifically to both get out of, and to open up, markets in the country.
"The Government should be working hard to privatise most of the statutory bodies over which it has control. We had seen the beneficial results of competition in the recent entry into the telecommunications market of Digicel, and increase in coverage and reduction in costs that competition has led to."
