Resource projects expected to create more jobs for Papua New Guineans

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Resource projects expected to create more jobs for Papua New Guineans

PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s multi-billion Kina resource projects are expected to create more jobs, PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ian Tarutia says.

He was responding to concerns over the scarcity of jobs in the country, with long queues of unemployed, including university graduates, battling for whatever is currently available.

Tarutia, who is also National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) chief executive officer, said the national economy was in a “distress situation”, especially because of the lack of investment.

Read on to find out more about PNG’s employment situation, as reported by The National:

More jobs needed

January 28, 2022The NationalMain Stories

Ian Tarutia

By DALE LUMA
MORE jobs are expected to be created when the multi-billion kina major resource projects get off the ground, says PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ian Tarutia.
He was responding to the concern over the scarcity of jobs in the country, with long queues of people, including university graduates, battling for whatever is currently available.
Tarutia, also the chief executive officer of the National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund), said the national economy was in a “distress situation”, especially because of the lack of investment.
“Employment is an indicator of the health of an economy.
“If things are thriving, there’s growth and businesses invest,” he said.
“In PNG’s case, we had anticipated the resource projects being rolled out which could have brought in foreign exchange, which (then) would have created employment, which (then) would have created a flow on effect with the demand for goods and services.
“So that is an indicator.”
He said numbers indicated only a few jobs available.
“The numbers are showing that the economy is in a distress situation.
“So the employment numbers are probably an indication of where we are with respect to the economy,” he said.
“Employment is one indicator.
“Investment measured against the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is another.
“Spending would be another indicator of how the economy is tracking.”
He said an indicator of when things were picking up again would people borrowing to invest in their business or capitalising their operations.
“But if there isn’t, if interest rates are dropping, then that’s showing that there’s a lull in economic activity,” he said.
“From Nasfund’s statistics, that’s been evidence of the high number of withdrawals being processed in 2021 and 2020.
“There’s been a lot of restructure.
“Businesses have had to let a lot of staff go.
“(And) if people are losing jobs, and there’s no new jobs being created to soak up those unemployed or those coming through university or so forth, that’s an indication that our economy is lagging and we need a kick-start.”
Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker said millions of eligible workers around the country were looking for jobs in the formal sector, which currently could only accommodate between 400,000 and 500,000.
He said as more young people entered the job market this year after graduating from tertiary institutions and schools, the chances of securing formal employment were slim.
Barker said formal employment in the country had been stagnant since 2014, despite the increase in potential workers coming out of education institutions.
He said the country had an eligible workforce of about four million adults (over the age of 18) not in fulltime employment, with between 400,000 and 500,000 jobs in “a small formal sector”.