The Lae District SME summit brought together participants from all over Morobe.
The event that went into its second day discussed issues that centered around small to medium businesses.
The event is an initiative of the Lae MP Loujaya Kouza, who wants to bring together ordinary people to discuss and find a way forward in solving some of Lae’s oldest problems.
Amongst them is the growing number of unemployed men and women in the city.
“We want to make Lae district become a template so other districts in Papua New Guinea can use, borrow it and use it,” Ms Kouza said.
This is almost like the district version of the SME summit, held in Madang last year that centres around involving people in the development process.
The summit also seeks to make a paradigm shift from the informal sector to more organized, small to medium businesses.
In recent years, much of the blame has been on the growing number of unemployed youth, who have been carrying a battered image of crime and other law and order problems.
Over the years, there are serious concerns that ordinary people, the landowners of Lae city and those living in Lae will be marginalized from the growing economy. But this year and onward may be different.
The Member for Lae calls it 'a participatory economy and when the economy grows, they grow with it.'
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uzVbJuL3X0w%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
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