Its been more than a month since the PNG Companies Register went online and there has already been mixed reactions about the new online lodgement system.
Wouldn’t there be a security risk to have all this business information at the finger tips of the public, some have queried. There’s this assumption that because the registry is now online some folks would try to take advantage of this freely available information to use it for fraudulent purposes.
I wonder how that works out? You see, unless, you hired a computer nerd to hack the registry system, which I doubt would never happen, the catalyst registry software, the platform on which the PNG Companies Register is built, is a robust web application with tested security systems in place assuring reliability of the information presented on the online PNG Register.
Others have questioned why all company details are now freely viewable or accessible online. Why doesn’t the PNG Companies Office charge fees to view and access the information on the online PNG Register?
Yes, information on the PNG Register has always been available to the public at a fee, in the old registry system. A service fee used to be charged on things such as conducting company searches, obtaining extracts and certificate copies or reprints and even doing photocopies of registered filings. Back then all these information was offline and was not always readily available or easily accessible until now.
To keep up with global trends of doing business in the information age this has all changed with the new online PNG Register. Now all these information is freely available for downloading or emailing from anyway in the world where you have internet access and without any service fee being imposed to access them.
In many ways this empowers everyone concerned with doing business in PNG including you. It empowers the banks especially, as they can now easily verify any new business checking account opening applications by simply conducting their searches freely online without waiting for feed back on company searches done through their headquarters in Port Moresby. It empowers the government or private bodies granting business contracts to a company where they need to verify if the company is legitimate and they simply need to go online to do the verification instead coming physically to IPA Haus at Konedobu NCD. It even empowers the business consultant maintaining and updating information on behalf of their clients where they can now easily view their clients business details on the online registry from the comfort of their offices. Last but not least it empowers anti-corruption agencies scrutinising companies that have questionable deals with the government by having company details at their finger tips 24 hours a day 7 days all year around.
When the companies registry went live in November 2013 many folks who fronted up at the IPA Haus to obtain extracts, copies of certificates or do company searches were disappointed to find out that they can’t now get these information over the counter at the IPA Haus in Port Moresby like they used to in the old registry system but instead they were directed to go to an internet cafe and log on to the IPA website to obtain them. You can imagine the reaction of those who didn’t know how to use a computer or have never surfed the internet or even being to an internet cafe for that matter.
It would beat the purpose of having these business information freely online when people still came to the ground floor of the IPA Haus to obtain it. It would also just be an expensive exercise for the PNG Companies Office to be printing out these information on paper every time someone came to the counter to get them and without being able to charge them under the new online registry system when that same information is already freely available online.
From experience in the mobile communication industry, folks in PNG are smart. When BeMobile first started in PNG not many had a mobile phone handset or even used the BeMobile service. It was not because they did not know how to use a handset but simply because BeMobile only targeted the upper income market and for several years made it such an expensive exercise for the lower income earners in PNG to own a handset or make calls using their network. They ultimately paid the price very dearly by losing the mobile communication share market to Digicel.
When Digicel came on to the mobile communication scene in PNG back in 2007 a veil was removed from the eyes of the public. They targeted the rural population, which is more than 80% of the total population of PNG, by offering much cheaper handsets and even cheaper call rates so that even your grandpa was making calls from his sweet potatoe garden back in the village. 
So it is with this new online PNG Register. Many folks in PNG may not know how to use a computer or even own a computer to start with or how to access the world wide web but out of necessity either they will have to learn how to do so and may purchase a new computer, so that they can file their own business filings on the online PNG Register or better still they could just pay someone with the know how who probably is already equipped with a computer who will do it for them at a minimal cost.
Which would you think would be the smarter option?
There in itself my folks is a micro business opportunity for you where if you had a fair idea about how to correctly file business documents at the PNG Companies Office, you could help folks around the country register and maintain their business records at the PNG Companies Office, at a fee off course, simply because you know a little bit more about computers and the internet then these folks who don’t and you probably already have a laptop and a Digicel 3G modem or you know someone who has a laptop or PC who you could go into partnership with and share the risks and profits with. I will let you think about it.
Anyway, now that the PNG Companies Office is online the next government agency that will be also going electronic hopefully in the middle of 2014 will be the IRC - the Tax Man. A renewed memorandum of understanding (MOU) was recently signed between the IPA, the IRC and the Customs Office at the launching of the online PNG Register at the Dynasty Restaurant on 29 November 2013 for the sharing of information between these three government agencies.
One of the anticipated agenda talked about during the launching coming from right at the top is a proposed one-stop-shop at the ground floor of the IPA Haus between the IPA and the IRC. What this basically means is that if and when the IRC went online you would be able to get your business certificate and tax file number at the same time at one location instead of the current practice where after business registration you had to file a separate application for a business tax file number which normally would take several weeks to obtain. So that's something good to look forward to this year in terms of the ease of doing business in PNG. Hopefully this would increase the global index rating of doing business in PNG which is currently at the bottom percentile.