Why is the PNG Government Crowding Out PNG’s Entrepreneurs?
Papua New Guineans complain incessantly about the state of services provided by the country's State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), such as PNG Power, Air Niugini or Telikom. The more informed Papua New Guineans argue for privatization or at the very least better private sector like management to solve the significant problems that have built up for so many years. However, despite this ever present dissatisfaction from the people, PNG’s SOEs are consistently among the worst performing businesses in the Sovereign State of Papua New Guinea. None of them operate profitably to provide an adequate return on equity to the people of PNG. The PNG Government has proven time and again that it is not capable to run businesses profitably yet we have seen over the last decade a new group of SOEs joining the ranks of the older aforementioned PNG Power, Air Niugini, Telikom etc. New entities such as Kumul Petroleum, Kumul Minerals, Dataco, Kumul Agriculture and Kumul Diwai have been set up to partici...