Prime Minister James Marape has reminded Papua New Guineans of the support programmes already in place by the Government and participate in the initiative.
He said support programmes including Price Support and Freight Subsidy programmes in Agriculture, and the K100 million-per-year funding for SMEs since 2020 which should become good incentives for Papua New Guineans to return home to work their natural resources.
Marape added that rural-based economic activities abound demonstrating the successes of working the land or operating small businesses - such as MSME owners who have successfully borrowed from the government-supported SME facility since 2020, the artisan fish-buying depot in Manus, the crab exporting business in Central Province, the big engagement of villagers in cocoa cultivation and production in East Sepik, Morobe and Bougainville.
"There is no shortage of examples of Papua New Guineans who are successfully engaging with their land or making a comfortable living from MSMEs.
“As the Government continues to open up our rural areas through the Connect PNG Programme and connect our people to markets, there is every reason for our people to stop migrating into towns for average-paid jobs and settle down on their land to make good money for themselves and in turn support the economy," said the Prime Minister.
He further pointed out that as the Government moves into unlocking primary resources even more through downstream processing, these would in turn create more employment, while the Government works with the Australian and New Zealand governments to export both skilled and unskilled labour into these countries’ markets.
“These employment generation activities will take time for us to create. There is no quick fix to our country’s employment challenges; it is a long road to holistically address this big issue facing our country,” said PM Marape.
The Prime Minister urged Papua New Guinean youths who are not returning to school this year to look out for the upcoming youth mobilization programme to enlist in to get some direction and help.