The government’s regulating agencies were put in the spotlight today at the 2nd Business Regulators Summit in Port Moresby city, with calls from business houses and stakeholder partners, urging them to shape up in enabling a conducive business environment for Papua New Guinea (PNG). The first critique came from the PNG Chamber of Resources and Energy (PNG CORE) when the Ms. Gretel Orake, who is the Managing Poly & Analysis, plainly stating that the regulators in the mining and petroleum sectors need to pull up their socks when it comes to going through the process of approving and issuing of tenements (licenses) for both mining and petroleum explorations. She said that there have been many instances of potential developers coming into the country with resource projects proposals, but when it comes to assessments and the process of issuing licenses for explorations or the issuing of environmental permits, it takes forever, leaving many of these resource companies having to wait for long time, or eventually abandoning the prospects of exploration, which then results in revenue opportunities lost for PNG affecting the economy in the long run. Ms. Orake added that due to the slow turnaround time from these regulators, the number of resource explorations have dropped significantly over the years. The building and construction sector is another vital area where businesses face such dilemma with Lamana Development Limited airing its frustrations in getting building approvals from regulators responsible for physical planning, building and even land, water and electricity. Laman Development Limited General Manager, Mr. Leon Schulze said this issue is quite costly and does result in unemployed in some cases. When giving his experience dealing with the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) physical planning and building board in Port Moresby city on some building projects, he said the delays by the regulators usually result in him having to lay off people from work because all the necessary requirements, assessments and documents have not been processed in a timely manner, delaying the projects for even years before anything is guaranteed. “I have argued with NCDC. There is no communication, we follow up and then nothing. You need to make sure that you do the work,” said Mr. Schulze when reflecting on the tedious performance of the regulators that he experienced. The sad thing is that PNG CORE and Lamana Development Limited are just two of a vast array of businesses, companies and stakeholders in the various sectors in the country that face these challenges when dealing with state regulators to initiate projects or make investments. The consensus was that big improvements must be made to the way the state regulator agencies operate. Some suggestions brought forward in today’s Summit from the business community include upgrading the skills of the employees working in these regulatory agencies, more funding support for the regulators, reducing the duplication of roles performed by these regulators, and the implementation of digital platforms to enable ease for registrations, lodging applications and communication between regulatory agencies, so to create a one stop shop for businesses or individuals to access the services they wish to engage. The 2nd Business Regulators Summit will end this afternoon with the recap and validation of the topics and discussions against the Summit objectives, and regulatory gaps and issues identified by stakeholders with key recommendations.