By Vasinatta Yama – EMTV News, Mt Hagen
A two-day workshop in Mt Hagen which started today(September 3), will see small and medium road contractors better understand their contribution to the development of Papua New Guinea.
It is a joint initiative of the Transport Department, Works, National Roads Authority and the Department of Trade, Commerce and Industry.
The workshop is supported by the PNG-Australia partnership.
The workshop is targeted at small and medium road contractors to enhance their abilities on how to go about doing their business.
Most importantly, it will help them to better understand the business, technical, financial, and contracting aspects of their companies.
Its main objective is to give skillful training to small and medium contractors and supporting SMEs to grow.
The Australia-PNG partnership, through their Transport Sector Support Program or TSSP and Works Department, has delivered more than K60 Million worth of road maintenance works to 70 different local contractors in 2017.
However, this does come with bids which local contractors must fully understand, because of the procurements and risks involved to do their work.
The Works Department has come up with a template to monitor contracts given by the Department so that contractors must get their job done diligently. The Trade, Commerce and Industry Department is there to help small and medium road contractors register their companies, and is there, to educate them on ways to bid to be awarded contracts.
Meanwhile, Edward Kandakali from Lawama Construction said the main obstacle for road contractors and one that results in unfinished jobs, is the land ownership issues.
The two-day workshop will end tomorrow.
The same workshop will be conducted in Madang at the end of this week.
