Books, Reviews, writers

Putting The Papua New Guinean

Businessman Under A Microscope

Many adult Papua New Guineans have been or are involved in one or more commercial ventures, usually as shareholders.

Since World War 11, about 200,000 people have joined co-operatives and tens of thousands have invested in companies, partnerships and other forms of business enterprise.

Some of the organisers and parti cipants have followed the advice of government officers or expatriate entrepreneurs, but many have tried to operate in a traditional way or by seeking a compromise of the two.

Almost invariably, the people expected far more than any type and form of business enterprise could provide, and they often lost interest and withdrew their support when their expectations were not fulfilled.

Many ventures failed because of inadequate budgeting, undercapitalis ation and lack of trained personnel.

Too many were started without reasonable market prospects and/or the capacity and management to fight expatriate competitors. And prestige, not service or profit, was often the main objective.

Many Papua New Guineans and some foreign observers see the total ity of past indigenous business development as one of failure. They overlook that the mere existence of indigenous enterprises has been a brake on exploitation, especially of primary producers, and that very many Papua New Guineans have gained much of the commercial knowledge and experience necessary if their country is to achieve a fair degree of economic autarky and to compete with other nations.

They also overlook that similar enterprises in other countries have a fairly high failure rate, too.

As there is not enough inform ation, eg statistics of the financial results of sole traders, partnerships and unregistered companies, to compare the overall effectiveness of businesses owned and operated by Papua New Guineans with that of like businesses in other countries, in-depth studies of individual enter prises are badly needed.

Between September, 1970, and April, 1972, Miss Andrews, an anthropologist, studied 30 non traditional commercial ventures wholly or jointly owned and operated by Papua New Guineans in Port Moresby.

In Business and Bureaucracy, she sets out “to describe firstly, the nature and extent of Papua New Guinean participation in business in Port Moresby and, secondly, its relation to the processes of official policy formulation and implement ation”.

Her case studies deal with the social environment in which the entrepreneurs operated and with their relationship with the main government agencies of relevance, the Department of Business Develop

ment and the PNG Development Bank.

This is a sociological study. It contains almost nothing concerning the business environment, let alone the financing, management and economic results of the enterprises.

The author deals with a situation which, in regard to government sponsorship, advice and assistance, commercial legislation and other relevant matters, does no longer pre vail.

Not only the Department of Busi ness Development and PNG Develop ment Bank, but the whole of the Public Service and statutory bodies are now in the hands of Papua New Guineans, and there is a national policy to give them control over their country’s economy—including, of course, internal commerce.

Neither those involved in the businesses reported on, eg Mr Gau Pako of Mirikuro Transport or Mr Francis Ovu of Allied Enterprises, nor any business development officer or bank official with whom they dealt, will learn anything new from reading that “to belong to an alien business culture is a complex process (for Papua New Guineans)”.

And they will not be surprised to read that “the theme of wantok (traditional socio-economic obliga tions) pervades much of immigrant Papua New Guinea thinking and social action ... in Port Moresby” and enmeshes Motu, Koita and other ‘original’ entrepreneurs alike.

The author states that the colonial government’s business development policy was based on an Australian model, and that many Papua New Guinean businessmen felt their pro gress hampered by certain aspects of that policy.

She recommends that the govern ment issue “flexible policy directives . . . to allow the emergence of a truly indigenous business culture”.

Like some other foreign academics, most of them without training and experience in business, the author makes this recommendation without explaining what kind of “truly in

digenous business culture” she has in mind.

The rapid improvement in their material standard of living wanted by just about every man and woman in Papua New Guinea requires greater productivity, more industrial isation and better management throughout the nation. The only non-Western people who have achieved this without forfeiting their personal freedom, the Japanese, have organised their commercial and industrial enterprises very much along Western lines, at a consider able social cost. Understandably, Papua New Guinea’s policy makers and planners want to avoid the errors made by their counterparts in other nations.

Business and Bureaucracy is the second last of 60 research bulletins published by the New Guinea Re search Unit of the Australian National University. Commenced in 1963, the series has been one of the many fine achievements of the NGRU. Papua New Guinea’s new Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research, established by statute, has taken over the functions of the NGRU and will, no doubt, play an even greater role. —Harry Jackman

(Business And Bureaucracy. By C.

L. Andrews. Published by Australian National University, Canberra, 1975. $2.00).