Papua New Guinea has fallen two places in the latest World Bank Group assessment of the ease of doing business in world economies, released last week.
This year’s edition of the report placed PNG 133rd out of 189 economies, placed between Ethiopia and Kiribati.
Of concern for PNG’s business community, PNG was one of only 33 countries not to improve their overall business environment in the past year, according to the survey. PNG recorded a slight improvement in its ranking in only one of the ten criteria the survey uses to measure the ease of doing business—that for getting electricity (in which PNG ranks comparatively highly, at 26th).
Its ranking fell slightly in seven others, most notably in starting a business. According to data collected by Doing Business, starting a business in PNG requires 6.0 procedures and takes 53.0 days.
Singapore is the top-rated economy for ease of doing business in this year’s survey, followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark and South Korea. Eritrea was the lowest-ranked country.
Elsewhere in the Pacific region, economies like Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were commended for regulatory reforms implemented during the past year. Solomon Islands jumped 10 places up the overall rankings to 87th after getting electricity was made easier by improving procurement practices for the materials needed to establish new connections. Vanuatu’s ranking rose for making property transfers faster by digitising its land registry system, and hiring and training new staff.
Samoa was the leading ranked Pacific nation at 67, with Tonga at 69, Vanuatu at 76 and Fiji at 81.
The 2015 report used 10 measures to rank the countries, including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations.
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From my observation I see something needs to be improved are; process and procedures of doing or assisting clients, external problems brought to work place, expecting some form of bribery or commission, untrained and skilled staffs leading to fall in labour productivity, underpaying of staffs or no motivational plans.
PNG need more awareness, set target and measure effectiveness of every staff within each organization served, and tough rules be imposed on agents and staffs not performing to meet targets.
sam Jay
The Public Service in Papua New Guinea is not serving the interests of the people. The Government needs put in place a robust working public service machinery. Kimisopa & his newly established Public Service Parliamentary Committee needs to find out what is making the other smaller Pacific Nations a better place to do business.
It is no surprise to see that PNG has fallen slightly in World Banks doing business rankings. PNG boasts to be a leader in the pacific but good governance in systems seems to be a recurring issue year in and year out. Is it because of the system of government? Is it because of the leaders in the system? Or is it because or the bureaucrats and technocrats behind the system? Even walking into a government building, the environment and its processes of doing business is already unfriendly. We live in a 21st Century but we are way behind time.
“A man is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else”—Blame and Responsibility, John Burroughs