Papua New Guinea has a high level of mobile phone penetration, but Tony Westaway, Chief Executive of MiBank, believes the country has significant barriers to overcome if it is to achieve optimum financial inclusion in the digital age. He outlines some of the issues to Business Advantage PNG.
The Papua New Guinea Institute of National Affairs celebrates 40 years this year as the country’s leading ‘think tank’, research and public policy advisory service for government and business on key economic issues. Executive Director, Paul Barker, reflects on its history and achievements.
Sir Kostas Constantinou, the Chairman of Bank South Pacific (BSP), has indicated the bank is considering a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Looking at some common ways of assessing a bank’s suitability for investment, how does Papua New Guinea’s largest bank measure up to Australia’s banks?
Now a Chief Financial Officer based in the UK, Aarish Shah occupied senior executive roles in Papua New Guinea for nearly a decade. Here he reflects on the lessons he learned from running businesses in PNG—lessons that he believes are ‘poignantly transferable to life and business anywhere.’
Permitting easier labour movement between Australia and the Pacific Islands would have a more beneficial effect that foreign aid, claim Lowy Institute researchers Leon Berkelman and Jonathan Pryke. They consider two models for how it might work.
Businesses in Papua New Guinea must have strategies to manage the shortage of foreign currency, says Stephen Massa, Port Moresby Managing Partner of the law firm Dentons. He looks at some approaches but warns that businesses must pay attention to their legal obligations.
The Papua New Guinea economy is not likely to improve greatly in the first half of the year, says Alan McLay, President of the Lae Chamber of Commerce. But he believes companies in Lae – PNG’s manufacturing and logistics hub – remain hopeful of an upturn and he expects some positive developments with power provision.
Businesses often don’t realise that they are vulnerable to attacks from disruptive new players until it is too late. Andrew Wilkins considers some of the strategic issues created by creative disruption.
The Papua New Guinea government, faced with falling revenue, cut back sharply on core services in the 2017 Budget says Stephen Howes, Director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University. But MP funding is at five times its 2012 level.
Marketing never stays still. Robert Hamilton-Jones returns to the city of his birth to find out how digital technology is raising customers’ expectations to new heights.