Comments

Busa, I see a potential flaw in the way this initiative is set up. The Minister is asked to approve a link mechanism to give voice to informal economy 'vendors'. I'm sure your intention is not to restrict access to this consultative mechanism simply to those selling goods ('vendors') outside the formal sector. What about the emerging (and as yet ill-developed) informal service sector? Hair-dressers, beauticians, car mechanics and other tradespeople, and so on. An important objective of informal economy policy should be to widen the scope and increase the depth of informal economy activities.

Hi Dr Amanda Watson Thank-you for your insight and research in to the SIM card registration in PNG. Unfortunately many of us have registered our SIM card numbers with our ID's taken and some of our personal information which offers some risk if used by some unauthorised agents or organization. The government may have good intentions in legislating the SIM card registration but its true impact is yet to be realized. I hope the government will make the correct decision if the SIM registration exercise does not produce the outcome it was intended for.

Thanks for sharing your experience of the Seasonal Workers Program. I have travelled to the Solomons many times volunteering with medical & education projects. We treat the locals like family as they respect us, work hard & appreciate anything we do & any skills they pick up while working with us. They appreciate every opportunity & most help their fellow man by sharing the knowledge learnt. We are always happy to help our northern neighbours who are no different to us except that they were born in a different place with less opportunities. Do you know if Days for Girls have been into the area your Workers come from? I am sure you would be able to approach a local sewing team or chapter (possibly Toowoomba?) to supply kits. If you plan on going back they would talk you through distributing the kits for all the students at the local schools. I have distributed them in the Western Province & Guadalcanal & they are prized possessions to all who were lucky enough to receive one.

Thanks Dr. Watson for the probing research done Just a concern citizen here; first the notion of sim card registration must be legally binding for all citizens and foreigners leaving in PNG. if there is no law enacted to enforce the course of sim registration then it can be challenged by our sovereign laws. Because privacy and secrecy are of paramount concern to individuals and our sovereign nation. And it is right that needs to be respected regardless of our predetermine background variables such as ethnic minorities, gender and or social standing in the community. Therefore, it must first be legally binding to allow is implementation Thanks

I am in support of the Seasonal Worker Program that in general benefited a lot of Solomon Islanders. Our development organization, the Rinaoli Perpetual Development Association really wanted to be an Agency in Solomon Islands. We have tried out organic farming by setting up demonstration farms and then each farmer applying the techniques in their own farms. We concentrated mainly with yams and taro organic farms. We have identified capable farmers that are able to join the SWP but we need to link with farmers in Australia and this is the advice from Jack Waneoroa, an officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Hence we are now appealing to the Australian Farmers so that we can link up with, to send our capable and disciplined farmers. We will meet all required costs to come to Australia, such as, visa, air ticket, medical check etc. Please email to us using the email; ptaloble@gmail.com. Cheers, Patrick Taloboe

A very interesting piece Dr Watson. Thank you for sharing the link with Divine Word University Alumni Association through Dominic Tulo.

Hi Albert and all, Amanda has made very good observation and I supposed anything that should happen in a country is based on law and mobile phone companies I hope are registering SIMS as required under law. if there is no law people have right to complain. However if there is a written law people have no choice but laws must be enforced and people have to comply. I hope mobile phone companies are adhering to requirements of the law. regards john

Thank you for this article Dr. Watson, it shares a lot of the same questions I've raised but also gives good examples of how this process has worked or has been changed to better suit the needs and capability of a country. It would have been interesting to have some how brought together the NID process and sim registration exercise if it were possible, some sort of link, looking at the amount of detail being given to service providers such as Digicel.

Thanks for the rich insights about the complexities of the SIM card registration system. It's a good summary of issues that need to be addressed if the system is to work fairly and effectively.

I guess Telikom registers its users when they purchase a SIM card (I registered before I bought one). Rwanda deactivated 485,000 SIM cards after extending due dates for registration, and I wrote to The National newspaper arguing that January 20 would not work for rural communities. As you point out, SIM Card registration doesn't reduce crime. There's no empirical evidence. When revoking the mandatory SIM card registration in three years later the report from Mexican authorities stated that registration of SIM card did not help in "investigation and or prosecution of associated crimes." United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Romania and New Zealand have considered mandating SIM card registration but opted against. I am not surprised by PNG government's haphazard decision to make SIM card registration mandatory. The government has a reputation of initiating ambitious projects without proper research. NID is only popular with working class population in urban areas because of threats like "No NID, No Pay" announcement by Minister for National Planning (and for identification purpose for obtaining travel doc or banks requirements for the new birth certificates issued with NID) Instead of making registration mandatory, the government should be improving services (e-Commerce/m-Commerce) that require use of mobile phone services. This would encourage SIM card holders to voluntarily register. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sim-card-registration-png-should-adopt-global-best-practice-kabuni/?published=t

Hi Joyce. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and share a comment. The decision to extend the deadline was made by Sam Basil, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and Energy, on advice from NICTA, which is the regulatory body. I wasn't involved in organising the deadline, but I welcome it. As you say, there are many mobile phone users around the country who need more time to register their SIM cards. Thanks again Joyce. Amanda 🙂

Thanks Amanda for doing such a lovely job in getting dates extended as many users around the country did not register their sim cards.