Asians Influx in PNG & Their Business Magic Formula

(A Case in Port Moresby)

By Willie Mell

Why are Asians taking over many businesses in PNG, particularly in Port Moresby, and becoming so successful and expanding? A lot of us are left to wonder why on earth Asians are now running the show in Port Moresby. This is an intriguing and a scary phenomenon!

Before discovering their business magic formula, here are some realities.

CURRENT REALITIES 

PNG is sitting on a time bomb with influx of Asians! Before we know it, and very soon, we will be totally ripped off our birth-rights as citizens and be made marginalized in our own land! 

Whether they are legitimate immigrants and are on valid business and work permits, or part of the government's recent 'look north approach', is up to our good government to answer.

In the last 10 years or less, influx of Asians in PNG has been rapidly growing. And in the case of Port Moresby, they are now plundering Papua New Guineans' reserved businesses, and the trend is dangerously upward!

They are everywhere in Port Moresby! You can find them in Morata, Gerehu, Boroko, Hanuabada, Tokarara, Gordons, Erima, 5 - 9 Miles, Taurama Valley, Sabama, Kilakila, Kaugere, Badilli, Koki, and some have even gone into Central Province villages. Some even speak fluent Pidgin-English and marry local girls! Some are bad tempered and abusive.

Not only are they running  tuckshops, but also big shopping malls too. For instance, the busiest Vision City, Desh Besh Gordons, Baas Waigani, Gerehu Mosin Plaza, Bismillah Gerehu, 9 Mile Plaza, Manu Cash & Carry, 1-Stop 6 Mile, and many more. 

The clothing shops, hardware shops, consumable electronic shops, kaibars and quick marts, civil construction companies, real estate developers, sub-standard education institutions, are mostly Asian owned! One would ask, what economic growth is our current government boasting about, strictly from the microeconomic standpoint while the direct opposite is happening on the ground?

Some are even secretly brewing and manufacturing fake soft drinks and juices in Port Moresby as reported (a recent case in 9 Mile). If this is investigated and proven true, it has already posed health risks to our innocent lives!

Whether these people are faithfully paying taxes to the government or not is another important question left to answer.

Beside, all the municipal wastes in the city are partly contributed by these people. For instance, Desh Besh Gordons is the filthiest supermarket retailing and wholesaling groceries. Street vendors buy cheaply from them and then take them to the main streets and sell them to commuters leaving the wastes everywhere, an everyday eye sore! 

Merchandising (display of items) is way poor in all the Asian-run grocery shops. Shops are filthy and in disarray creating an environment conducive for rats and insects to breed. Frozen goods, especially meat products, and bakery products are not properly stored and sold, posing huge health risks! Consumable electronic products sold in all Asian shops are counterfeit products!

Whether goods sold by them are quarantined and fit for human consumption and use, is again for relevant authorities to investigate.

By observation, the amount of business activities run by these foreigners in the city is in the vicinity of 70% to 80% and expanding. These are businesses reserved for Papua New Guineans! 

It has also been observed that most of the tuckshop owners in the city cheaply employ local teenage girls to work for them and then use them as sex objects! Some of these young girls are forced to work very long hours and 7 days a week. 

These are very sad and scary realities but we do nothing about them!

These being realities now and for the government to address, what is their secretive competitive edge? 

MAGIC FORMULA

Asians have mafia network with ring leaders, or financiers at the top of the pyramid, either onshore or offshore. 

The ring leaders or financiers lend money or give stock loans to those in the network who can't afford at very low interest rates with strict credit terms and repayment schedules. 

Those who didn't have capital seeds before are now able to start up their own businesses with the assistance provided. They then enter into contracts with our local landlords and shop owners to rent properties. Because locals are hard hit by very bad economic climate, they willingly lease out their properties to these Asians to run businesses. 

The fact that Asians are honest, reliable and hardworking, they commit to their financiers' terms. This indeed helps them operating so many businesses in Port Moresby and elsewhere in PNG.

SO WHAT'S THE POINT?

Take aways are:

1. When will our government chase these foreigners back to where they belong and take back our birth-right opportunities? Obviously these brown and yellow skinned humans are not coming in to help but to plunder and destroy to their own advantage.

2. On the flip side, however, surely we can learn a lot from them. Can we do just like these Asians and improve our living standards? Can the government devise smart and clearly spelled out regulatory framework to empower all of us? Banks are killing simple people, but Papua New Guineans  can help Papua New Guineans! Ideally this remains a rescuing economic model to be employed if properly engineered, legally and commercially! It is more like a microcredit scheme but in the absence of financial institutions - people helping people or rich helping poor. (I am willing to contribute my ideas)

We are not lazy people by birth! Our ancestors were among the hardworking races on the planet! You see why our people are always engaged in selling goodies and vegetables along every street corner or roadside, and gardening on hilltops, selling bettlenuts everywhere, taxis, buses, etc? This is simply because this hardworking attitude is in our DNA! What is lacking is a smart microeconomic rescue blueprint and supportive legislation to empower us!