35 percent of CEOs in PNG are confident about their prospects of revenue growth over the next 12 months.
This was revealed in the PNG Survey Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and presented in Port Moresby on November 15th.
The PNG report is part of the PwC’s 2018 APEC CEO Survey.
PWC PNG Territory Senior Partner, Jonathan Seeto, said this is an indication of the positive view in the next 12 months.
The survey covered 84 business leaders in LNG representing 21 percent of businesses with more than US$500 million in revenue.
PNG CEOs have also highlighted priorities over the next two years, which are prioritised in the following:
- Skills and development of workforce;
- Operations;
- Digital customer interactions;
- Data infrastructure;
- Development of digital products;
- Managing data risks; and
- Using artificial intelligence.
The CEOs also say there is mixed impact from advancing technology on staff numbers with:
- 7 percent saying they are creating more jobs and filling them successfully
- 24 percent saying they are creating more jobs BUT struggling to fill roles with the people/skill they need
- 36 percent saying there are no changes to head count and minimal change to employees’ roles
- 15 percent saying there are no changes to head count BUT substantial changes to their employees’ roles
- 15 percent saying they are reducing headcount
Meanwhile, 65 percent of the CEO in PNG believe the Government should do more to train science, technology engineering and math (STEM) professionals.
STEM is seen as the enabler to accelerate growth and can be achieved through expanding access to education, reliable access to power and electricity, and affordable high speed internet access.