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Showing posts from December, 2018

SMALL SCALE BUSINESSES IN PNG

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"What most Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs don't see!" Papua New Guineans favor business opportunities that promise huge and quick money! Typically, they target hire car, properties,  civil constructions, taxi services, bus services, betel nut wholesale/retail, illicit drug deals, gambling and other such opportunities that promise huge and quick returns.  They don’t like seemingly unproductive businesses such as those in the FMCG retail sector or agriculture. FMCG means, Fast Moving Consumable Goods . Tucker-shops, grocery shops, and supermarkets are selling FMCGs. These businesses aren't fit for PNGeans as generally perceived hence left to the “kongkongs” or Asians to run.  Other little known Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) opportunities in the service sector are either seen good for foreigners or for the know-hows. These include tourism & hospitality, travel agents, financial services, beauty and fashion services, entertainme...

TELCOS' BIG MISCONCEPTION

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[PAPUA NEW GUINEA CONTEXT] The major telecommunication companies (telcos) in PNG are DataCo (data or bandwidth wholesaler), Telikom PNG, Digicel, and Bmobile-Vodafone who has now merged with the growing 4G LTE. There are also many other internet service providers (ISPs) in PNG whose focus are internet and data services (ISPs are not relevant to this article though). Rumor has it that there's one or two more telcos soon to enter the market. And when that happens, customers could be the winners whilst the operators should be efficient and more competitive. Currently, competition in PNG is tough with Digicel being aggressive in the mobile phone and mobile broadband services, taking advantage of its wider GSM network. Bmobile-Vodafone though small in size, sees positive signs of growth with 4G LTE now forms part of the business. Telikom PNG, though giving away its wholesale business and 4G LTE, is still leveraging the corporate sector with its fully dedicated and premium vo...

THE TODAY'S GENERATION OF LEPROSY

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A very interesting sermon was preached by an Adventist Minister at 17 Mile, John Pundari SDA Church, outside Port Moresby on the 8th December 2018. The sermon was titled: " Jesus is coming back sooner than we think ". What was very thought provoking was a phrase the preacher quoted from someone else during his sermon. He never elaborated further on the quote but I made a good and descriptive visualization of it. And, this is the qoute: "The Generation of Leprosy" in today's context. Centuries gone there were generations of conservatives. The Melanesians had sets of laws, rules and taboos that were passed on from time immemorial, purely oral, but strictly followed. For instance, sex topics were not openly discussed, incest was a taboo, women seeing their monthly periods weren't allowed to cook or serve food, marriage between immediate relatives weren't allowed, men used to go hunting and fishing, the women folk used to cook and nurse children, etc....

FREE ONLINE SERVICE BY SERVICE PROVIDERS ON GSM PLATFORMS

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In PNG, the number of people using internet is rapidly growing so as the amount of activities, as we are in the digital age. People are using internet to google, for video/audio streaming and file downloads/uploads, for social media, but most importantly, they are using it for ONLINE SERVICES such as internet banking, plane booking/ticketing, hotel bookings, ecommerce, online payment, online studies, assignments, researches and other similar. They are using internet from home, at work or wherever they are, utilizing mobile broadband devices, such as mobile phones and wifis, to their advantage. They want convenience and easy access to online services from where they are and when they want it. Because of the high internet price in the country, mostly prepaid internet users are more conscious of data depletion, although the demand for it is inelastic. For online service providers, this could be seen as a marketing opportunity to take advantage of by working in partnership ...