Zha Agabe-Granfar, founder of Verge, a boutique digital and design solutions agency based in Port Moresby, shares her top advice for SMEs seeking to thrive in the digital space: trust is king.
Industry sectors
Credit card giant Visa is fast-tracking its digital revolution to the Pacific due, in part, to COVID-19. According to its senior South Pacific executive, there will benefits for both businesses and consumers.
The first half of the Papua New Government Government’s promised K200 million funding for small and medium-sized enterprises has been handed over to Bank South Pacific. The money will be used to provide subsidised business loans.
The new Managing Director of Steamships Trading Company, Rupert Bray, says the company has ‘performed admirably’ during the COVID-19 crisis.
The contribution of the resources sector to the Papua New Guinea is being greatly under-estimated according to Maygen Turliu, Director of Tax & Business Services for Deloitte PNG. What appears in Treasury’s Budget is less than a third of its actual contribution.
In a surprise development, the Porgera gold mine looks set to re-open, ending a period of intense disagreement between Papua New Guinea’s government and Barrick Niugini, the mine’s operator.
The Papua New Guinea government hopes that its ‘in-principle’ agreement with Twinza Oil over the Pasca A offshore oil field in the Gulf of Papua will be a template for new oil and gas projects. But the project isn’t across the line just yet.
Small businesses could be up and running with an ecommerce site in as little as a month, if they follow the advice of Robert Webber and Kaye Iling, the brains behind Food Pro PNG’s recent ecommerce launch.
It is critical Papua New Guinea does not squander the opportunities provided by the Coral Sea Cable System, says the Chair of the Business Council of PNG’s Internet Working Group, Sundar Ramamurthy.
The Marape government’s proposed introduction of a new Organic Law for mining, and oil and gas projects will do away with Papua New Guinea’s ‘robust’ legal regime, according to Vaughan Mills, Head of PNG Practice for Corrs, Chambers Westgarth.