The National
The Pacific as a whole is already being affected by
the global economy but Papua New Guinea continues to defy trends and is
performing strongly, says Westpac’s Pacific general manager, Greg Pawson.
Although he expects the Pacific’s largest economy
will slow somewhat over the next two or three years, he remains optimistic.
A lot of people think PNG will slow down a lot as
the PNG LNG project construction phase comes to end, but I think there are
sufficient other major resources projects in the pipeline for us to remain
confident.”
Also helping to sustain high growth is the
remarkable expansion of the banking system itself.
At the end of
2012, PNG’s largest bank, BSP, passed one million active bank accounts for the
first time, part of the banking industry’s push towards greater financial
inclusion across the region.
“Four years
ago, when I came here, we had about 550,000 accounts,” Ian Clyne, BSP’s chief
executive officer tells Business
Advantage PNG.
BSP is using tablet technology to deliver banking
services to some of the most-remote regions in the country.
“This technology enables us to open new accounts
within five minutes wherever there is mobile phone coverage,” says Clyne.
The solution was recognised as the best bank-led
mobile money programme in the 2012 Connected World Mobile Money Awards.
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