Much has been said about the ongoing economic crisis in Papua New Guinea. The government says PNG will recover- we are a growing economy while critics have said we borrow too much and make less.
Former Commissioner General of the Internal Revenue Commission, Sir Nagora Bogan, says the current state of the economy is a result of the lack of foresight and planning done by the government.
“That we can take. And we dont have the mechanism in place to check and say: ok, times have changed, the economy has changed, social systems have changed and populations and democratorships have changed. Technology has changed.We have to measure, plan and manage the use of our resources,” Sir Bogan says.
The economy is going through challenging times. When the LNG construction phase ended, workers started to get laid off and spinoff projects stopped, there was a gradual decline in cash moving in and out of the country.
The downturn in world oil prices and the slump in the mineral sector have also hit the Papua New Guinean economy hard.
Over half of the country’s revenue stream comes from the non-renewable sector, there has to be a shift to the sustainable sectors.
Sir Nagora Bogan says, PNG’s economy isn’t diversified enough to cushion the impact. Our sustainable sectors like fisheries, forestry, agriculture and, to some extent, manufacturing are industries still in their infancy.
