17/12/2020
Government and Leadership Standards and Qualities
Before I start, I’m not a politician. I’m not here to lecture any one or to offend anyone. As a citizen I have my free will to express my thought from my personal point of view. I have created pngeans.com basically to make awareness of what we already have. PNGeans theme is Empowering PNGeans with Business and Leadership.
Rare is the leader who, like a Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Prime of Dubai (UAE) or Lee Kuan Yew Founding Prime Minister of Singapore, has the desire to take small fish village to Global Real-estate Hub, Dubai GDP was worth 352 Billion by the end of 2019, or from a small island to a Global Financial Hub with zero dept. Singapore GDP was worth 372.00 USD Billion by the end of 2019.
History has proven itself, there many leaders but Yet we see many leaders trying and many are falling.
Honourable MP’s, Corporate Leaders, Leaders and private citizens of this country. For PNG to Change it our duty to make it right today. I’m not saying we try our best to become like Singapore, Dubai, Australia, USA, etc.
Our main agenda should be, How can we work together to turn PNG “The Island of Gold Floating in a sea of Oil “to a Global Hub. Our Agenda should be how can we change this 3rd World Country (Undeveloped Nation) to 1st World Country (Developed Nation). Getting from Point is not always the easiest but it worth it for your betterment of our citizens.
A Nation is Greater not by size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people and the quality of their leaders which ensure it an honourable please in history.” Mr. Lee Kuuan Yew
Opportunities are made, they do not just lie around waiting for someone to grab them “-Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. PNGeans we have to sit and look back 45 year from now, What can we learn from our 45 years of independence. I not here to judge any of our leaders but I here to challenge our leader’s today and our future leaders.
Can PNG Change in the next 5 to 10 years the simple answer is YES. The Question to our Honourable MP, Corporate Leaders, Leader and Private citizens are we willing to change?
“The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been”
History proofs. Regardless of the country or regardless of the culture, everything rises and falls on leadership.
As a government we cannot bypass economic stagnation, when our leader stays the same.
Anyone can be appointed to a Leadership position. Having a leadership position doesn’t make you a leader.
People make you are leader, they follow you because they want to follow you not because you want them to follow you.
To grow and become a better leader you need to know your people and connect with them. You cannot lead without your people.
When you connect with your people it leads to respect. When environment becomes positive that is where you build strong relationship with your people. Best leaders know how to motivate their people and getting things done. You produce result by building their influence and credibility.
Your goal is to identify and develop as many leaders as you can by investing into the people and helping them grow. Investment in to people is your priority and take a step every day to help them grow. You were appointed by your people and your first commitment is your people. Commitment to your people is the pinnacle of your leadership. Unless you voted yourself in to the parliament or into a leadership position. Your commitment to your people is the pinnacle of leader.
Leadership is about growth – for yourself, your relationships, your productivity, and your people.
If PNG is in an economic stagnation, lack of basic Infrastructure and increase in unemployment rate, which means people holding the top post are positional leaders because there is no result. People who remain in a positional level only care for himself, his family and his fat bank cheques.
Don’t be confused some people call you leader and follow you because they want to get what something in return. When you become a true leader, they follow you because they believe in you not because they want something in return.
If you are a positional leader it’s time for you to investigate yourself. Stop all the non-sense sh*ts spending time in poker machines, hunting little girls, clubs, parties and all the nonsense sh*ts. Learn to lead yourself through priorities and self-discipline. Give time look back at your people and listen to their pain and struggles.
Today is our Opportunity
We have abundant of resources. We are rich in Oil, Gold, Gas, Coffee, Cocoa, Vanilla etc. this are our opportunities we are fortunate to have and should be utilising them to fully benefit our people and country as a whole. Opportunities don’t just lie around waiting for someone to grab them. Opportunities are a blessing given by God for us to materialize it.
Let’s not do things for our own personal gain, thus we can have a fat bank account, etc. PNG is full of Opportunities. Leadership is about taking those opportunities. Legacy is what you leave behind when you do something that can make an impact in People’s heart.
My challenge to you Honourable MP’s, Corporate Leaders, leaders and private citizens, what legacy have you left behind in the last 5 years?
Before everything our agenda’s should be on how we can provide for PNGeans. To Make PNG better, the government has to look into the livelihoods of simple PNGeans and empower them with better housing, better hospitals, better schools, SME support, agriculture and employment opportunities that would bring the nation economic stability.
Employment Opportunities
A direct injection of funds and development into the community is in a form of Employment.
Investment in skills plays a significant role in helping national economies to adjust to changes in working practices, advantages in technology and challenges associated with globalisation. Rising unemployment levels and social exclusion result in economic stagnation.
Government has to step out of their comfort zone and start thinking smart and critical to manage and respond to the new opportunities posed by globalisation. Millions of people are losing their jobs, because technology is dominating, yet at the same time address domestic challenges associated with demographic shifts in population, increased urbanisation and constrains facing employment growth.
PNG Economic Opportunities
The most critical questions is how to create quickly hundreds, if millions of jobs for PNGeans. The idea to create jobs in the corporate sector or by government-sponsored activities has been put to rest. Currently, there are nearly more than 4 Million self-employed and unpaid family workers in PNG. The self-employed represent 80 per cent of the workforce in low-income economies (less than K500 per capita GDP). For any strategy to be successful, it must give central importance to self-employment and entrepreneurship, with emphasis on agriculture, agro-industry and small firms in the informal sector.
Agriculture Is An Engine
The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England was spawned by rising productivity and incomes in agriculture that increased demand for manufactured goods. In post-war Japan, South Korea, and more recently Thailand, rising agricultural productivity and a shift to commercial crops have been dynamic engines for economic growth, job creation, higher incomes and rural purchasing power, wider markets for produce, and the growth of downstream industries. In Taiwan, this was the result of a conscious strategy to utilize agriculture to stimulate job creation and domestic demand.
Slightly more than half the PNG’s workforce, of whom 60 per cent are women, are still engaged in agriculture. Agriculture will remain the largest single occupation for the foreseeable future. For too long this sector has been regarded by planners primarily as the source of essential food production. Historically, agriculture has also played a major role as an engine for economic growth and employment.
The vast technological gap between the levels of agricultural productivity achieved by most developing countries and the highest yields achieved globally represents an enormous untapped potential for stimulating economic growth and job creation. I strongly argue strongly for an agriculture-led job creation strategy and cite evidence to show how it can generate sufficient jobs to eradicate poverty in PNG.
New deal for the self-employed
Self-employed persons, betul nut (buai) seller and the small firms which they establish have enormous potential for rapidly generating large numbers of new jobs and raising productivity to increase incomes, provided the right policy measures are in place to support them. In many countries, a large proportion of small enterprises is established by women and employ predominately women. An appropriate mix of policies focusing on access to technology, training, credit, marketing and distribution channels can substantially accelerate self-employment, particularly in the informal sector and rural areas, and among women.
Expand services
Contrary to common conception, services can be a major contributor to job growth even in PNG at this earlier stages of development. This sector is as amenable to stimulation by government policies as agriculture or manufacturing, and it also provides impetus for the growth of other sectors. Supportive policies have to enable trade, transport and other services to generate more jobs. It has been done in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore. Services have produced more than half of all job growth in many other Asian nations, including private day-care centers, nursery schools and computer training institutes, which are multiplying rapidly in many countries, but can be expanded much further. India has adopted an innovative, low-cost, self-employment strategy to expand availability of long-distance telecommunications services by setting up small private telephone and fax centers throughout the country. Informal private service enter prises in construction, commerce, food catering, repair and transport have vast growth potential. Rapid expansion of education, training and public health, especially rural health and education, can also serve as a conscious strategy for employment generation.
Technology of organization
Much emphasis is placed on the widening gap in technology between North and South, but the gap in the technology of organization is even greater. Creation of new types of systems and organizations can create markets and jobs in many ways. The Dutch system of flower auction co-operatives is so successful that 68 per cent of the entire world's exports of cut flowers pass through markets in the Netherlands. The franchise system has led to a rapid proliferation of new businesses and new jobs in the West in such widely diverse fields as food services, home remodeling, dry cleaning and real estate. Industrial estates, export processing zones, export promotion councils, export insurance, warehouse receipts, quality standards, and thousands of other organizational innovations have been either created or borrowed by developing countries to accelerate social progress. A comprehensive study of successful systems and institutions that can be transferred and adapted to local conditions will document the enormous untapped potential for stimulating faster economic and job growth by inventing, imitating and further improving social systems.
Stimulate Employment in PNG
Employment generation is a product of multiple factors that combine together. Stimulating job creation requires a comprehensive approach, rather than partial policies or piecemeal strategies. PNG’s tremendous increases in employment generation can be achieved based on comprehensive strategies. While broad prescriptions should not be indiscriminately applied to the widely disparate situations confronting PNG, the availability of a number of tested methods under lines the fact that effective and proven policy measures can be formulated to meet the employment needs for PNG.
Emphasize agriculture
Utilize agriculture as a source of economic growth and job creation by a shift to high value-added, commercial crops, like Coffee, Vanilla, Copra, Coco etc, supported by policy measures to upgrade technology, improve skills, raise productivity, ensure the supply of essential inputs, establish marketing and distribution channels, create linkages between agriculture and industry, and cater to export markets.
Promote small enterprises
Promote small enterprises by policies to make technology, training, credit, marketing and distribution channels more easily accessible to small business, and by forging linkages between universities, research institutes and small enterprises. The creation of micro-enterprise banks and credit unions specifically designed to cater to the needs of the self-employed and small firms can be especially effective. There are a growing number of these institutions targeting clients that lack access to commercial lending institutions, particularly women, providing unsubsidized loans, and achieving very low levels of default.
Upgrade skills
Absorbing new technology, raising productivity, improving the quality and competitiveness of exports - all depend on the skills of the workforce. Labour productivity has been increasing in very slowly in PNG, half of which is attributable to investment in education and technical skills. Training institutions and programmes in PNG has provide only a narrow range and low level of skill acquisition to a small portion of the population. Raise skills to increase productivity by vastly expanding the lower tiers of the agricultural, craft, technical and vocational training systems at the local level to provide practical training in job-related skills to the saturation point. Imbalances between supply and demand for skills exist at all levels in developing economies. Make a careful assessment of present supply and demand for key skills. Compare the density of different types and levels of skill in countries at the next higher stage of development and evolve programmes to raise the quantity and quality of skills to that level.
Improve marketing
The organization of marketing is typically one of the weakest links and, therefore, one of the greatest barriers to economic growth and job growth. PNG Has to set up a distribution system for the export of citrus fruits and crops. Improve distribution and marketing systems, especially for agricultural produce, by identifying missing links and establishing successful model programmes that bridge the gap between rural producers and urban or overseas markets.
Expand services
Actively encourage and support growth of the service sector through programmes similar to those utilized to support the expansion of small industry.
Develop exports
After agriculture, the textile and clothing industry is one of the largest employment sectors in developing countries. PNG Should look into Textile and Clothing industry. The industry's global exports are US$250 billion a year. Greater opportunities are emerging for lower-wage developing countries to take a larger share in growing international markets. In order to take advantage of the increasing opportunities opened up by liberalization of world trade, PNG we should accelerate steps to expand export-oriented markets by forging foreign collaborations and overseas subsidiaries, acquiring technology, creating an attractive commercial environment for foreign investment, and continuously building the skills of the labour force.
Innovate Organizationally
Significant improvements in the competitiveness and growth of businesses in PNG can be achieved through raising organizational efficiency and dynamism through better internal management practices and better commercial systems in the marketplace. Conduct a comprehensive study of successful management practices, systems and institutions from both developing and developed countries that can be transferred and adapted to local conditions in order to accelerate development in each field of activity. Evolve new organizational patterns for existing industries based on adaptation of new technologies in small, geographically decentralized, labour-intensive production units in order to make these industries more responsive, flexible, efficient and competitive.
Extend Basic Education
PNG has to emphasis during the early stage of industrialization on primary and secondary education, especially in rural areas. This strategy increases the productivity of the mass of the workforce, helps promote income equality, consumer spending power and broad support for high growth and pro-business policies. Raise the educational qualifications of the workforce to the level pertaining in more economically advanced nations. Place particular emphasis on primary and secondary education, rural education and education of young girls.
Disseminate Information
Encourage the establishment of new institutions, programmes and systems to speed and extend the dissemination of practically useful information as a powerful catalyst for more rapid social progress. Encourage a national climate of open-mindedness to foreign ideas, influences and success stories.
Increase The Velocity Of Money And Other Transactions
Increase the speed of commercial transactions, especially money flows, in the economy by streamlining government and banking procedures, ensuring rapid utilization of funds by all government agencies, setting strict limits on the time taken for bank transfers, introducing agencies for credit verification and collection of unpaid bills, and improving the telecommunications infrastructure.
Revamp Higher Education
Educational systems which 'manufacture graduates' compound the problem rather than alleviating it. The problem of the educated unemployed is not so much the amount of education they receive, but the type of knowledge and attitudes imparted. Reorient the educational curriculum at all levels, especially higher education, to impart the knowledge and attitudes needed to promote self-employment and entrepreneur ship rather than salaried employment.
Employment Planning
Conscious employment planning is an essential requirement for generating full employment. Place the employment objective high on the national agenda and evolve a comprehensive plan to achieve full employment by identifying untapped growth potentials in agriculture, industry, exports and services. Launch a nationwide programme to implement all employment-related strategies on a highest priority basis.
Comprehensive Strategies
While most of the prescriptions listed above are known to all, very few are systematically and efficiently applied. PNG can benefit enormously by applying strategies that have worked in another Country’s.
Given a comprehensive approach, the right mix of policies, good government and a conducive international environment for trade, technology transfer and investment, every nation has the capacity to develop and meet the employment needs of its people within the next one or two decades.
Position is all about titles, stability, and positional authority. Leadership is different—it’s about influence, adaptability, and moral authority.
It is your duty to make this right.
By Samuel Nembai Samson
Private Citizen-PNGean
https://pngeans.com/government-and-leadership-standards-and-qualities/
