The Air Niugini Board has been instructed to review the rate in which the airline ticket prices are being set after some issues within the airline company saw the termination of some of the senior executive team members. The Minister for State owned Enterprises, William Duma, revealed in parliament today that they had to terminate two executives because of the unauthorized increases of airfares to the public. “There is a problem there and I must admit that these increases were never approved by the board of Air Niugini and never came to myself as the minister,” said Duma. “That is one of the reasons why cabinet had to make decision to let go of the CEO for Air Niugini.” He said Air Niugini is about providing fares that are affordable for the people, which was why changes had to be made to the senior executives of the Air Niugini. Minister Duma revealed all these during question time in parliament when responding to questions from the Member for North Fly, James Donald, who was asking why the cost of travel with Air Niugini from Western province out was over K1, 000 air fare for just one way.  

More information regarding the proposed construction of the Simbu Polytechnical (Polytech) Institute in the Gumine district is expected to be revealed today in parliament by the Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology. The Minister, Mr. Don Polye, in last week’s parliament sitting told the Member for Gumine Mr. Lukas Dekena, that he would respond in full to the member’s questions once he has the full details of this project. The member asked the minister as to what has become of the K41million funding allocated for the construction of the Polytech institution and what was the reason behind the delay of the construction phase. The Simbu Polytech was part of a National Executive Council (NEC) decision, decision 185 of 2014, to establish three Polytech institutions, one in Enga, one in West New Britain and the one in Simbu. Since then, the member said there has been no sign of work and the site where the proposed institution was to be built, remains idol with only a fence around the area. However, Minister Polye gave his assurance that despite the delay, some work should start soon with the construction. “That Polytech will be built and will be built properly to the process with quality,” said Polye. The minister also assured the member that he will get most of the answers to his questions especially on the funding, the delay and when construction will start.

More than 2, 600 Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) operations in the country have benefited so far from BSP Financial Group Limited SME loan products since the loan service was established over two years ago. The assistance saw the local businesses expand, generate revenue, and create more employment through the various SME Loan Products BSP offers. BSP Group General Manager for Retail, Mr. Daniel Faunt in a statement, said that the SME Credit Enhancement Scheme loan (CESL) continues to get a lot of traction in Retail Lending since its roll out on 4th October 2020. “To date, we have funded over K332million in SME Credit Enhancement Scheme Loans assisting 2, 640 SMEs. Equity requirement was reduced from 30% to 10% with an increase of funding from K3m to K5m in May of 2021. That allowed for greater participation from the SME sector in this scheme,” Mr. Faunt added. In 2022, BSP funded K310m in loans under the SME Credit Enhancement Scheme that assisted 1,699 SMEs. Overall, BSP has assisted 2,967 SMEs in the past 10 years with the various SME Lending products it offers. BSP Head of SME, Samuel Mulina said the SME Retail Lending team continues to deliver in the SME space and continued to fund loans using its own funds under the SME CESL facility despite exceeding the annual K100m support funding provided by the National Government. “Apart from the government funded Credit Enhancement Loan Scheme, BSP has been offering its own SME Lending Products since 2013; Smart Business Loan, Micro Business Loan (Agriculture), Term Business Loan (Working Capital), and Overdrafts,” Mulina said. More than 141 businesses have been assisted with K14m from BSP’s Smart Business Loan, while 64 customers have been assisted with a total funding over K657, 000 through BSP’s Micro Business Loan Products. “BSP not only gives out loans. One of our obligations as the leading financial institution is to provide financial literacy trainings in our chosen markets and the SME segment is no exception. We had 32 BSP SME customers attend our coaching sessions last November. “Developing good business habits, bookkeeping and regular cash flow deposits into business accounts helps SMEs develop good customer profiles. This is something we encourage from all SME customers. We look forward to continuing working with SMEs this year,” Mulina concluded.

The Governor for East Sepik Mr. Allen Bird is warning the government of a possible global financial crisis and that the country should start preparing for it so to deflect any further inflation in the country. The governor, during grievance debate in parliament in the recent sitting, told parliament that some of the world’s biggest banks like the Silicon Valley Bank in the United States, went bust just recently and other notable banks like the Credit Suisse Bank in Europe is also showing signs of trouble. He stressed that it’s not only that, but other major banks in the world are also showing similar signs and that should be the warning signs Papua New Guinea (PNG) must take note of and prepare itself for possible world financial crisis like the one back in 1997 when the Asian financial crisis began in Thailand and then quickly spread to neighbouring economies. “We should have a mechanism that recognizes what is happening in the other parts of the world that affects us,” said Governor Bird. “I don’t believe that we should continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that what’s happening in the global community will not affect us. “My view is that we should be doing more locally, we should be increasing local production so that we can off- set some of these things happening globally, our people in the towns and cities will feel this impact.” The governor indicated that there has to be some kind of intervention from parliament to make the economy more competitive so that it can grow. Bird fears the knock- on effects from the banks, should the major banks in Europe, the US and Asia start to collapse, PNG will be in trouble. “If other banks follow suit, a lot of our programs could be in trouble because were are borrowing from the world banks and we have significant debt owed to banks.” The governor’s call now is for the government and the parliament to start looking at measures to mitigate the impacts of a possible world financial crisis should it occurs in the very near future. By adopting sound measures, a lot could be avoided like price increases and job losses.

The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) has come out to clear the air on claims that the Acting Governor of the Bank approved a financial trading licence for Golden Sun PNG Limited. The Bank, in a statement said the notices and documents that were circulated on social media are fraudulent and were never authorized by the Bank or the Acting Governor Ms Elizabeth Genia. Golden Sun PNG Limited has not applied to the BPNG for a license and is not authorized to take deposits. The Bank encourages the public to use the authorized financial institutions and be wary of deceptive messages on social media platforms. The public has been urged to also find out and know more about money schemes and scams operating online, and the list of these institutions is published in the newspapers from time to time and on the Bank's website www.bank¬ png.gov.pg. The Bank continues to remind people not to invest their hard-earned money with money schemes or scams because they a fraudulent and in the end, the people will lose all their money to these crooks.

Teachers through out the country are yet to be paid their 3% pay increase because the PNG Teachers Association is yet to meet with the Department of Personnel Management (DPM) on this matter. This was made know in parliament this morning by the Education Minister Jimmy Uguro, during question time. He said the DPM is still waiting for the PNGTA to meet with the department to do the necessary paperwork to make sure that 3% is paid this year. The minister, when responding to questions from the member for Moresby North East John Kaupa on the matter, explained also that the 3% increase is for all public servants and teachers as public servants are entitled to this increase and should access it quickly. “Teachers are part of the public servants in the country that we have, we have about 130, 000 public servants clocked on the payroll and out of that total, 65, 000 of them are teachers. “My department of personnel management is waiting for now is for the PNGTA to get themselves organized so that they will sort out that matter with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), and from there the process comes through us and then treasury and finance will be able to release the funds to pay the 3 per cent to them.” This is now something that the PNGTA and the TSC must resolve now by meeting up with the Department of Personnel Management.

Great news for Nasfund Contributors Savings and Loans Society (NCSL) members, it has been confirmed that the NCSL Members Services will be back online today. According to NCSL, Members Online Portal service should be back online at 5pm this afternoon; however, the Loan Application service will be back online on Monday 20th March. For the Employer Online Portal, which includes Loan Endorsement, Processing Member Contributions and Processing New Membership. For the USSD service, the SMS Banking services will come online on Tuesday 21st March, while the Poro Card service is temporary unavailable but should resume in mid- April. Members without access to the Members Online Portal are advised that the branches will still be accepting manual withdrawal applications. For members with access to emails, they are encouraged to email their withdrawal applications to ceo@ncsl.com.pg. Members are also encouraged to apply for Member Online Portal access by email ebanking@ncsl.com.pg.

Sir Bob Dadae was officially sworn in as the 11th Governor General of Papua New Guinea (PNG) this morning in Port Moresby, marking his second term in office as the representative of King Charles in the country. The ceremony took place at the National Parliament House Chamber at Waigani in front of members of parliament and dignitaries. He first took the Oath of Allegiance and the Declaration of Office and following that, he was officially sworn in by the Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Gibs Salika on the floor of parliament. Sir Dadae was re-elected as the country’s governor general on the 19th of January 2023 by secret ballot on the floor of parliament. Initially, three candidates stood for the vice regal job, Sir Dadae, female diplomat Winnie Kiap and Steven Pokawin. Pokawin later fell out of the race during the eliminations after receiving only three votes to Sir Dadae 69 and Winnie Kiap 31. In the final vote, the Speaker of Parliament Job Pomat then read the final vote where he announced that Sir Dadae received 69 votes to Kiap’s 31 votes.

The country’s national power generation and transmission company- PNG Power Limited, is not going to be sold because it’s got some major financial issues that it is currently dealing with. The Minister for State Owned Enterprises William Duma in parliament today, admitted that the power company owes various creditors substantial amounts of money and already two of those creditors have taken the power company to court. However, this matter is being sorted out and the minister stressed again that PNG Power will not be sold off for cheap as a last-minute measure to get out of these problems. “I can announce that we have reached agreement with those companies, which actually are owned by our own people. They recognized that their own national power company is in trouble, and they have agreed to allow PNG Power time to trade its way out of those difficulties,” said the minister. “It is not a company that can easily be sold just to get out of the mess like that, in the immediate term and the near future PNG Power will not be sold, not at fire sale prices where our people will not get a decent return on this company and its assets.” On top of all these, the minister told parliament that the government has also put together something that should help the company back on its feet. “It is not a company where we’ve ignored, we’ve invested a lot of time and very soon with the approval of the prime minister, there is a rescue package that has been proposed to cabinet. Cabinet should be able to approve it, we will then see things being turned around.” “Yes, it is a problem company, but we are not sitting back and allowing it to go down further, we are doing everything we can to rescue it and turn it around,” he added. Minister Duma said all these when responding to questions from the East Sepik Governor Allen Bird during question time in parliament, on the power issues in his provinces and the overall issues PNG power currently facing. Caption: PNG Power has major debt crisis on hand.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Tkatchenko has announced that the next high-profile individual to visit the country will be the Prime Minister for India Narenda Modi, when he visits the country in May to meet with Pacific Island leaders in May. The minister said the Indian Summit with Pacific Island Leaders will take place on the 21st of May and onwards. It will see the Indian PM also hold bilateral meetings with heads of Pacific Island states on political and business partnership. Fourteen Pacific Island state leaders will meet up in Port Moresby to attend the summit. “This is a historical event; we have never had the prime minister of one of the biggest leading economies come to Papua New Guinea (PNG) before. Now, that shows you the commitment that India wants to play in the region and with PNG going forward,” said the minister. The minister also made it clear that PNG is co- hosting this summit with India. The event will all take place in Port Moresby city.

The recently launched Moresby South 5 Year District Development Plan aims to continue to empower the people by improving basic services provided to the two thousand plus population living in the electorate. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Moresby South and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, when launching his district development plan last night in Port Moresby, said the five-year plan also covers both new projects and current projects in the electorate. Some of the areas covered in the five-year plan include education, health, community development and the settlement issues. MP Tkatchenko said the development plan is all about empowering the people. “I think over the last ten years, we have done massive infrastructures with our governor, and we have shown what can be achieved in that regard, but we now have looked in a different direction,” said the MP. Giving an example of the work done so far, he said in the last ten years over 10, 000 people have benefited through education assistance, which he said is about 5% of a 200, 000 plus population. “So, we still got a lot of work to do in empowering our youths, empowering our women, empowering our community to make them self-sufficient.” “We want you to be economically independent, we want you to be economically empowered,” he said. Tkatchenko further elaborated that in the last ten years in his term in office as MP, a lot was delivered to his people like the construction of eight new market facilities, new health facilities like the one at the Koki Wanigela village and the new state of the art district hospital, to name a few. The member also reiterated a very important point, which he said continues to ensure success in the delivery of services to his people, and that is to put the resources available to good use and good partnerships. The key, he said, was putting the resources into the right places, not wasting the opportunities and good working partnership between the National Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parko, the prime minister and his government, and the communities. “I can tell you know, every single toea that I got from the national government from the DSIP and the partnership that I have with the governor through the NCD budget, go straight into the development of Moresby South for your benefit and your family and community.” Meanwhile, the MP also said that the plan will also set a benchmark for future developments in an electorate that is rapidly developing. “We want to set a benchmark for the Marape government, we’re going to say that this is what can be achieved. We will use this five years plan as a benchmark, so in five years’ time in 2027 when I stand up again, you can say whether I have achieved that or not.”

Nasfund Contributors Savings and Loans Society (NCSL) has assured its members that their contributions are safe and secure despite the shutdown of its system due to a cyber security threat. According to the NCSL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Vari Lahui, they have had to shut down their online portal and other services to protect the entire system from being breached and data stolen. “This issue happened on Wednesday 1st of March when we were starting out start of the day process, when we identified a threat in our system and so based on the expert advice we received, we decided to voluntarily shutdown the system.” “The reason why we wanted to do this is that the threat we identified had the potential to provide further issues for us and complications for us,” he explained. He said while the shutdown is in effect, NCSL team will continue to go through the system, better identify the threat and have it sorted out, so that the system can be safe to go back on line. However, he re-assured the members of NCSL that all their funds and information on whatever transactions done before the shutdown, are intact and safe. He added that no data was stollen. “I want to convey to our members that their funds are safe and secure, there are no loss of data. This is contrary to some of the false information that is being propagated out there by some people. To the contrary, the members funds are safe, and they will notice this when we bring the services up when they check their balances.” Mr. Lahui also confirmed that the system should be up and running in the next seven days, in the meantime members wanting to do emergency transactions can do so manually at the NCSL branches located through the country.