National Superannuation Fund, or NASFUND, is representative of the strong leadership now being shown by Papua New Guinea’s financial sector. It wasn’t always so, as the fund’s Chief Executive Officer Rod Mitchell tells Business Advantage.

NASFUND’S Rod Mitchell

‘In 1999, we had debts of K155 million and we had net assets of K125 million. Six years later we had assets of 750 million and no debt. We’ve grown annualised at 34.6% per annum year in and year out since 1999. Our growth rate last year was 43.5% so we’ve become the fastest growing financial institution in PNG.

‘The reason for the success can be attributed to a number of things. We’ve had a consistent message from day one. We’re very strong on corporate governance and transparency. We’ve got whistleblower policies. We’re also very strong on client service.

‘If you looked at the last three of four years, we’ve had a dramatic influence on corporate governance. We’ve been very demanding about setting high standards.

‘We’ve also become a leader in an industry that had been discredited and now we’re becoming leaders in the South Pacific. A clean financial sector is what we’ve been pushing and it’s getting there, it’s very clean.

‘There’s a new investment environment up here. With the changes in the financial sector, the independence of the Central Bank, the political stability through the Political Integrity Act and superannuation reform, we now have a much more solid base to work from.’