Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investments Ben Micah says his focus remains sternly on addressing the state of some of the country’s State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) and reforming them.
Micah spoke this morning on day one of the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference at the Crowne Plaza hotel, Port Moresby.
In his presentation on Managing Government Businesses for Public Benefits, Micah said he would ensure change to improve the SOE’s for them to become the drivers of economic development and wealth creation for the country.
He said the regulatory and political environment had contributed to some of the dilemmas of the SOE’s.
“Today we are working on reforming these SOE’s structurally, including changing their operating environment.
“The big picture is to reform our State companies to be commercially orientated and manged with corporate efficiency and with a business focus,” said Micah.
He said that under his watch so far, the asset value of all SOE’s had expanded significantly from K5 billion in 2012 to now more than K20 billion.
Micah said the SOE contribution to the expansion in the national Gross Domestic Product had increased from 31% in 2012 to 42% in 2013 to more than 50% in 2014.
He said this year; the SOEs will have contributed more than 60%.
“With Kumul Consolidation Holdings (formerly the Independent Public Business Corporation), all SOEs will be reformed and this will open up the way for expansion into other sectors of the economy,” said Micah.