Case Studies

The Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative is providing long-term support to the Investment Promotion Authority of Papua New Guinea for an ambitious business law reform program to enable entrepreneurship. A major component of this support has been the development of an upgraded online business registry, launched in fiscal year 2023, which makes it easier for businesses in Papua New Guinea to formalize, trade, and grow.

Business registries in Papua New Guinea (PNG) perform a key function as the public record for the registration of companies, business names, associations, and business groups, as well as the certification of foreign investment—making a modern, user-friendly system a critical part of a well-functioning and supportive business environment.

In September 2020, the Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative and the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) signed a renewed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to guide their long-standing partnership, following an earlier MOA signed in 2017. These MOAs covered the development of an upgraded online business registry system (ORS) to replace IPA’s existing system, which was outdated, expensive to maintain, failed to provide modern data analytics, and suffered data validity issues because of inconsistent compliance efforts.

PNG’s new ORS was developed over 2 years of close cooperation between the IPA and PSDI, with much of the work progressing remotely during the challenging period of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) border closures, which was facilitated by the longstanding relationship and history of PSDI and the IPA of working together. The process involved hundreds of hours of planning, including detailed implementation planning, process mapping and improvements, user acceptance testing, and transition planning, in addition to undertaking the necessary enabling legal reform. To smooth the way for the registry’s implementation, PSDI drafted amendments to the Companies Act and the Business Groups Incorporation Act. The Government of Papua New Guinea passed the amendments in January 2022, and they were certified on 12 April 2022.

The new ORS went live in December 2022. PSDI assisted the IPA with the transition of all information, including companies, business groups, associations, business names, and foreign enterprises, onto the updated registry, to promote data integrity on the new system. The new system allows all registry functions, including payment and communications, to be performed online.

“The IPA considers the upgraded registry critical for entrepreneurship, business growth, and investment in PNG. The upgraded online business registry represents a significant step forward for PNG’s business community, and the IPA is pleased it is now online,” said Clarence Hoot, IPA Managing Director.

The key benefits of the new system include:

• Reduced private sector compliance burden. Where private sector entities are required to report under different laws (e.g., a foreign-owned company with a registered business name), the ORS consolidates the information to report in one location. Businesses are able to meet their statutory reporting obligations quickly and straightforwardly.
• Improved data integrity. Better support for the ORS’ role as a primary source of market information and demonstrate compliance with anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism obligations.
• Mobile friendly. The ORS is navigable through mobile phones, which enhances access to registries by Papua New Guineans in rural areas and reduces the “technology barrier” created by requiring a computer.
• More payment options. Current payment options will be expanded to include Bank South Pacific’s BSP Pay, with the capacity to incorporate mobile payment options.
• Interoperability. The capacity of ORS to “talk” with other modern government systems will be implemented as far as possible, potentially creating further efficiency for the private sector and supporting the government to better match data in accordance with privacy laws.
• Data and analytics. The new ORS provides superior options for the IPA to collect and analyze data. This will enable the government to extract better value from the data that it collects and foster supportive private sector policy.
• Reduced cost. The hosting and running costs of the new ORS are less expensive for the IPA than the old system.

The procurement and launch of the registry were facilitated by the provision of A$2 million in funding from the Government of Australia.

This case study is taken from the PSDI FY2023 Annual Progress Report. Read the full report here.