The Prime Minister James Marape has put on notice CEOs and Heads of state owned entities to come up with a plan as to how they will make money for the country. Prime Minister Marape said this at a meeting he organised for Ministers and Departmental Heads at the International Convention Centre in Port Moresby on Thursday 20th June 2019. “I will be asking all our Ministers and SOEs to come up with a simple plan on how to make money and generate revenue and help the country and economy grow. “Many of you who manage our state owned entities should come up with a blue print on how to make your organizations make profit’’. “I have sat in cabinet in the last seven years with the former treasurer who is now Minister for Finance and the Planning Minister, and we have had many of our SOEs coming to us to give them money to resuscitate their programs and their organizations’’. “Some of those were coming to us to help to fix their balance sheets which was almost zero’’. “Let me now ask you, many of you who manage these state entities, come up with a plan in the next few months on how you will make money for the government’’. “Is that a hard request? So I ask those state owned enterprises out there and state owned companies and agencies who are supposed to make money, it’s time now to give us a clear blue print of how you can make money’’, said Prime Minister Marape. He also told them that if they have a clear blue print to make money they have a job. “If you don’t have a blue print you don’t have a job. It is simple as that’’. “I owe no favor to any one of you. You don’t owe any favor to me too. You are in the business of making money and I am making this early call out to you all. “You must make money and stand on your own balance sheet and not ask the central government for money all the time’’, said Mr Marape. He said during his time as Finance Minister working with the former Treasurer, they had embarked on what we now call the Public Money Management Regulation Act (PMMRA). Prime Minister Marape said that the intention was simple and that was to make money and keep some for operational costs and rest transferred to the consolidated revenue for the government “That principle will apply now. Make money and keep some for your operation and send some to the consolidate revenue for our national budget’’. “We will also save some money in the Sovereign Wealth Fund structure that we will put up for rainy days and going into the future’’, said Prime Minister Marape. Prime Minister Marape also told the Departmental Heads meeting that the government wants to see the cost of power and communication go down. “If we can unlock the cost of power in this country I believe we can have a ripple effect in the economy of this country’’. “Most of the costs on goods and services is reliant upon power. But in a country with high potential for hydro power, LNG Gas powered electricity and solar, it is grossly injustice to continue to have an economy that is operating in a very high tariff system’’. “PNG power you know your legacies and operational issues but come up with a plan to generate more power and reduce cost and make it affordable to all our citizens’’. “As Prime Minister of our country I want to emphasize the public auctioning of many of our public assets. “I believe in private power generation and if it means to auction some of our power facility that is available we must do that’’. “So that will make sure the bidder who submits a plan and can generate and supply power at the lowest cost can do that and is best for our country. “We also need cheaper communication in the country. “I appeal to the Minister for Communication and Energy to work with the department to ensure we have a cheaper communication and we can leap frog on many of the things we have discussed so far’’. “We will not fulfil many of our vision and dreams if we don’t have a strong and vibrant economy that generate revenue for our country,’’ said Mr Marape. Prime Minister Marape has also called on the Minister and their Departmentals Heads to do a stock take and analysis of how the resources are being mined and processed in the country. “When you talk about having no money to pay the bills of our country, and yet our resources are shipped, in ship loads, plane loads and in truckloads out of the country’’. “Our asset base is so huge but to translate that into cash in our economy is hard. There is something wrong somewhere and I want you Ministers and departmental heads to find the answer and if you don’t find the answer it’s either I go or you go’’. “Your cousins at home dream for their children to be in school, fluent in English, have a house, drive a car and work like you and I. “We have to work hard and implement the government policies so we leave behind a legacy for them’’. “We must not have an iota of complacency and relaxing as public servants and earn fortnightly wages. “We must work hard. “We as leaders are speaking out our vision and you as Secretaries and departmental heads must translate that into workable policies that benefit our country and make PNG the richest back Christian nation on earth’’, said Prime Minister Marape. Statement Comments are closed.
|
Papua New Guinea Breaking NewsPapua New Guinea daily News updates Let Your Voice be heard: Submit your news articles, commentaries, letters , Photos, Media Releases etc to us on this email: pngfacts@gmail.com
Mining & PetroleumTop Links |