The National Government has made a second phase of payment to support businesses affected by the unfortunate events of 10th January 2024 in the country where major shops were looted, torched, and destroyed.

City Pharmacy Limited (CPL) Group of Companies is one of those hit hard when several of its shops were burnt when police officers went on strike over pay issues on 10th January 2024.

Two cheques, one worth over K16 million, was presented to the CPL Group whilst another worth K98, 000.00 to a local software company JYVX Ltd for wages support.

Chief Secretary to Government Ivan Pomaleu presented the cheques to CPL Board Director Mary Handen and Jaive Smare owner of JVYX Ltd in front of CPL’s new supermarket, which opened two days ago at Port Moresby’s Rainbow suburb this morning (04/08/24).

“CPL was one of those hit hard by the incident when a number of its shops were burnt and looted. Since that unfortunate incident of January 10th our government has responded to support the salaries of workers who were displaced when the shops they worked were burnt and that was followed by other phases of support to CPL and other businesses affected.

“The presentation this morning is to support CPL restock such as CPL’s new supermarket here at Rainbow, and the other phase is the actual reconstruction.

“CPL has opened this premises two days ago and this to us, government, shows the commitment, dedication and resilience of the company to continue to trade and providing important services to our communities,’’ said Chief Secretary Pomaleu.

He said this is the second support as early in the year CPL was supported with wages support immediately after the events of 10th of January, and this support is for restocking and rebuilding premises purposes.

Chief Secretary Pomaleu also appealed to citizens in Port Moresby and other urban areas where businesses operate to offer services, create jobs and spin-off businesses to support, respect their workers and value their being as a corporate citizen in our communities.

“The government, we are doing our part to rebuild those businesses, but without the support of the community, we will not have businesses operating in a safe and secure environment.

“As we all saw on the 10th of January this year when communities are compelled to be part of the evil acts of destruction and looting we lose the convenience of a place where we can get services easily for our families and communities at large.

“So, it is an appeal and my appeal on behalf of the government to our communities and people and also here at Rainbow to look after these businesses as they are here to help us. The stores and businesses are our garden. Once we have those destroyed and closed, we will also be hit hard when we go far to look for services and food for our families,’’ said Chief Secretary Pomaleu.

Another wages and salary support for staff payment of K98,000.00 was made to the owner of Jyvx Ltd Jaive Smare. His businesses of providing software to purchase credits for electricity, easy pay, and other electronic purchasing software equipment were affected as they operate in some of those major shops that were burnt and destroyed by fire.

Mr Smare said he was happy for the government support as a small business they lost their cash and days taking when the incident happened and could not recoup and restart as other big businesses.

“This government support will help us with our staff who have been volunteering and will go a long way in what we do for our community,’’ said Mr Smare.

A Director of the Board of Directors at the CPL Group of Companies thanked the government for the K16 million support. Mary Handen said they lost most of their shops but remain committed to their core businesses of providing services to families and communities.

“We have opened one shop at 8 Mile, and now this second here at Rainbow. The support by the government is highly appreciated as it will help us restock and rebuild our properties we lost in the fires and destruction on 10th January.

“On behalf of CPL Group, we thank the government for its dedicated commitment to help us rebuild, including other businesses who were also affected,’’ said Ms Handen.

Immediately after the civil unrest, the government made a series of decisions to stand united with the Business community to help rebuild and restore normal operations of the businesses affected by the unfortunate events of the 10th of January.

It took a holistic approach to rebuild international and business confidence and restore essential services to our communities and to deliver this program, the government established an Interagency Task Force led by the Chief Secretary to work closely with the business community to ensure that government assistance was delivered effectively and to the right and affected businesses.

The task force continues to work closely with the PNG Business Coalition to ensure qualified companies benefit from the government assistance program and restore normal operations at the earliest possible convenience.

Chief Secretary Pomaleu said they have now established and systemized a working process whereby all qualified companies submit their claims through the PNG Business coalition.

“The business coalition processes these claims and then forwards the claims to the Task Force Secretariat in my office, who further process, validate, and verify these claims before the claims are processed for payment.

“These processes have been endorsed both by the business coalition and my task force to ensure there is an effective governance framework in place to manage government funds,’’ he said.

The government assistance program is being delivered in five different phases with direct wages support of K500 per employee for 6 months, support for debris removal of properties burnt, restocking, fourth is reconstruction through concessional loans.

The last is the administrative and policy support by the Bank of PNG and other regulatory authorities by establishing express lanes to support the rebuilding and reconstruction efforts.

So far, over 30 companies, both in Port Moresby and other centers, have benefited from the government assistance program and a total of K50 million worth of cheques presented to these companies to date.