Red-tape constraints taking toll on investment: Yala

PNG NRI Director Dr Charles Yala.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, September 11, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

NATIONAL Research Institute Director, Dr Charles Yala- took a swipe at what he said are “broken system of government”, that has cost the country major investments apart from the long held geographical curse of the country’s terrain that has chase investment.

He made the remarks when referring to major investments in the country by investors from (South) Korea that have been stalled as a result of system failure of governance, during the Korea-PNG Dialogue Forum, held to commemorate 40 years of diplomatic relations with PNG..

“Key points are that there are opportunities and, unfortunately, you also find it (PNG) is a country of challenges.”

“Our former ambassador made it clear that there is an investment waiting down in Lae but the provincial government is disorganised and it is still there.”

“There was a cassava project several million worth down in Central with a willing investor everything was there and yet we lost it because of one of our perennial problems, Land.”

He said there was nothing wrong with land, but that of access to land with secure titles as key to investment.

“Security of tenure is fundamental for businesses and private sector so we lost that.”

“Of course PNG is the land of equal opportunities, but equally PNG is a land of challenges. High mountains, fast flowing rivers, swamps, isolated islands.”

“For me those challenges are opportunities, we can harness the fast flowing rivers for Hydro, we can use Korean technology to cut through these mountains and retain the natural landscape for tourism.”

“Our cultural diversity is a goldmine that we can exploit for tourism purposes. We can harness the slow meandering rivers of Sepik and Ramu and develop agriculture, food.”

He said natures constraints to the country are not the main barriers but were the opportunities that were hinder in a system that has not worked for the country.

“For me the real barriers and problems are man-made- the man-made constraints and the broken system of government.”

“We continue to have broken systems and processes in our government systems that ultimately kills investment and business and make us poor in what is potentially a rich country.”