Patrick Cooke: ALL BLOG POSTS
Papua New Guinea’s chairmanship of APEC in 2018 comes at a time when the Pacific Island nation is still grappling with a foreign exchange shortage and high public debt, as well as persistent problems with law and order.
Papua New Guinea’s chairmanship of APEC in 2018 comes at a time when the nation is still grappling with a foreign exchange shortage and high public debt, as well as persistent problems with law and order. Despite these issues, C-suite executives appear optimistic for 2018, as shown by the more than 100 participants in Oxford Business Group’s second Business Barometer: PNG CEO Survey. The vast majority (77%) think that the APEC 2018 summit will have a positive or very positive effect on the economy.
Underpinning President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 campaign was a pledge to pursue constitutional change in the form of a federal political system. This issue is quite divisive, and it remains unclear whether lawmakers will enact constitutional change. However, a plurality (43%) of CEOs who participated in the latest OBG Business Barometer: Philippines CEO Survey say a switch to a federal system or the empowerment of local government units would be advantageous or very advantageous to the country’s economic development, against 40% who think this would be disadvantageous or very disadvantageous.