Papua New Guinea is facing a job search crisis as most skilled jobs are not landing in the hands of Papua New Guineans. There are several hundred companies ranging from small, medium to large sized companies but very specialized trade skills are still concentrated in the hands of foreigners. Our graduates at grade 12 and university levels do not practically have the knowhow competent skills. Book knowledge that include tutorials, lectures and practical only prepare them to develop their cognitive skills but the everyday job performance occurring in the workplace seem to be not matching and so that means companies have to liaise and align their workplace policies including their training to the syllabus/training modules of educational institutions. Could this be true? Only few reputable organizations are willing to come out openly to embrace this phenomenon but majority of the companies and entities are very reluctant because time is money and resource sharing is waste of time considering PNG’s volatile political climate, harsh business conditions with increasing law and order problems. We then ask who is entering PNG and how do foreigners land jobs in this country given the fact that we have institutions that protect the sovereignty and safety of PNG local labour market. Several requests and instruments have been put in place for certain key departments such as Foreign Affairs & Migration and Labour and Employment to tighten the entrance door but these efforts have not been very successful. There are individuals aiding the entry of foreigners at the highest level. Some unconfirmed stories surface the discussion forums in which they say that some national leaders bring in outsiders to work for them. These national leaders whether are politicians or business people organize visas and passports and over time, these foreigners network with other connections and apply for citizenships and they are granted automatically. Some foreigners usually of the Asian and sub Indian region enter PNG through their relative or family connections. Twenty years ago, the city of Port Moresby had few of these ethnic nationalities but today it is a different story. The problem of people entering a country illegally is a worldwide issue and we could live by it. But there is got to be a point in time relevant government agencies should take a proactive and counteractive stand in dealing with illegal entry of foreigners, with some coming with no start up capitals and making more money here under the nose of the PNG Government authorities. On this note, land grabbing continues to be a pain killer with locals enticed with rice and tin fish and promise of cargo after land is sold to them at a very cheap price. In Madang for instance, market places along North Coast Road and Wali territory have blue coloured stores that have been built without proper Building Board Approvals and no proper sanitation and waste management systems. The locals who are giving away the land do not have sufficient knowledge on laws relating to customary land registrations and various land policies that have been recently devised by National Research Institute and Lands and Physical Planning Department. The SME sector is predominately controlled by foreign elements including trade store business, liquor sales and transportation. With the ever increasing unemployment rate, ordinary Papua New Guineans without any skills are forced into working as store keepers, security guards, cleaners and so forth with many paid below the minimum wage set by the government and for this reason a lot of our people survive on borrowed money and stealing. Some workers work overtime under very painful conditions and there is labour abuse particularly among women but these issues go unnoticed everyday. In the capital city Port Moresby, many of our city dwellers and commuters are forced to work in shops, night clubs and engage in taxis and PMVs because they cannot own and run a supermarket, or run an insurance company or whatever job that are labour intensive involving large capital, etc… It is now a public view that those foreigners coming into PNG should first of all speak and write English and respect our national laws. However, this view is not respected as internationalization thrust is very hard to resist and prevent it. There have been discussions made on skills and capital transfer and this involves foreigners with those highly skilled knowledge and skill should impart to colleague Papua New Guineans and when foreigners leave PNG. Currently it is very difficult to measure the skills transfer mechanisms and so we need government authorities to develop instruments to see the level of skills transfer rates occurring at the workplace. Even we could do further by developing laws that require companies to submit their workplace policies to relevant government authorities and monitor their implementations. At the political level, our Prime Minister who is enjoying his tenure as Prime Minister in this 9th term of the parliament is right when he says it is through uninterrupted political rule that we will begin to see services reaching down to the village people. Once we achieve a political stability our next immediate task is to provide security to all our businesses, state institutions and people. Law and Order issues ought to be minimized and lash out for good. If the NCD Governor says buai is banned in NCD then the same level of energy, strategy and the amount of money budgeted for to achieve results should be given in combating law and order. Law and Order is nothing but an outcome of unemployment and we can take stock of the increasing level of unemployed youths all over the country. One suggestion would be to identify them, teach them basic financial literacy courses like what some institutions have started, fund them with some little cash so that they can engage in SMEs. These small SMEs should be monitored and mentored in order to achieve results. For 30 years nobody took interest in PNG and this country was not the melting point as some may suggest, otherwise it was a no go zone by overseas media. Now 10 years past, PNG is not a failed state anymore, it is not an anarchy as some suggested, this country is moving forward and we need re-born leaders graced with great genetics and prophetic leadership so that they hold the hammer of God Almighty and profess to God His Great Works and Blessings. Christians and religious are praying for a revival PNG. PNG has to rise to the occasion, transcend in the highest realms and our strength of time is coming and has already come when we were made proud by two of our national commonwealth gold medalists, Dika Toua and Steven Kari. Having a right mindset, having believe in national transformation like what Singapore and Malaysia experienced could teach us a lesson. These two Asian countries had set their agendas within time schedule and work towards it year by year. We need our house in order. We cannot continue on introducing more laws and regulations if we fail to effectively implement the first one that was introduced some years ago. We have made enough laws and we need to revisit these laws and achieve results. For instance, the laws of foreigners entering PNG allows for anyone to have knowledge of English Language, for those coming for business ought to have sufficient startup capital, and awarding citizenship rights does not occur after one or two years. Secondly, companies engaged in labour recruitment have to go through some stringent processes in consultation with the Labour & Employment Department, Migration & Citizenship department, Police and other line state agencies. If there are acute shortage of skilled labourers, submissions should be made to concerned state entities rather than short cutting the process and bringing in skilled workforce without any knowledge on PNG customs and lifestyles and English or Tok Pisin speaking capabilities. Finally, the 26,000 graduates coming out from tertiary institutions per year need to be guided by directing them into SMEs, and this can be done by loan schemes through financial institutions. Agriculture and engaging in informal sector can alleviate institutional unemployment crisis and of course some state ministers in this government have ardently and proactively stated the need for the revitalization of SMEs but when will this occur and who will captain that initiative. That is, who is taking the lead in identifying reserved business activities, revoking business licenses of some foreign companies engaged in reserved business activities, prosecuting those who continue to do business without paying tax to the national government. We are in very serious trouble when those foreign companies have been given tax exemptions for the last 10 – 15 years or even more. Have the state checked their account books, how much they have made in those years?
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 03:29:49 +0000
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