Small Industries Centre
The Small Industries Centre, which comes under the Small
Business Development Corporation, is in the forefront of promoting
the Government's policy on Small Micro and Medium Enterprises
(SMMEs) in Papua New Guinea.
It is mandated to promote technologies "appropriate"
for self-help project initiatives at the village level.
It is charged with the mission "to develop, advise and
assist individuals and groups in village and urban communities
with appropriate technologies to enhance their quality of
life" and also provide skills training for locals to
start up small scale industries and cottage type industries
in both urban and the rural areas".
With this mandate, the SIC is also projecting its attention
to meet the Government's policy on "Beyond the Minerals
Boom".
With this policy statement, the SIC - with its sub programmes
- is reorganising itself to.
promote, provide and facilitate small-scale industry in the
urban and rural communities of PNG so that a sound and sustainable
economic growth is achieved.
Its activities are targeted to assist Papua New Guineans
to participate in the development of local industries through
the provision of technical and business skills needed for
small-
scale processing industries.
The SIC has been in existence for many years and, before
1985, came directly under the Small Industries Research and
Development Unit - a division of the Department of
Commerce and Industry.
In 1983, following the abolishment of the Department of Commerce
and Industry, the SIC - because of the similarities of its
mission statement objectives, functions and activities with
that of the South Pacific Appropriate Technology Foundation
(SPATF), a special project of the Office of Village Development
under the Department of Prime Minister - merged with SPATF,
thus the creation of a new organisation known then as
SPATF/Small Industries Centre until 1996.
On establishment, it undertook a number of programmes to
achieve its aims and objectives.
The focal activities were the development and dissemination
of technologies for self help community development projects,
with particular emphasis on the village and underprivileged
urban communities.
In 1996, the National Executive Council issued a directive
for the SIC to be amalgamated with SBDC.
It effectively became a division of SBDC, however, without
any major changes to its objectives, functions and activities.
The SIC maintained its current operations, even after SBDC
was abolished by the Skate Government in 1998, and also without
any government funding during the last six years.
Currently, we have three active projects.
They are leather craft, rattan and light engineering.
We produce leather shoes, belts, rattan, and light engineering
tools such as water pumps, brick making machines, drum ovens
and rice mills.
We try our best to sustain the operations.
The leather section produces high quality leather products
that are competitive to the imported products, provides skills
training to Papua New Guineans, and provides a professional
leather repair service.
There is, at present, no tannery in PNG and all leather hides
are exported unfinished and all leather skins for processing
are imported finished.
The SIC's own leather products operation, Pacific Footwear,
consumes 300 square metres (3000 feet) per month while the
minimum reported viable size of a tannery would require
throughout of 500 square metres (5000 square feet) per month.
Pacific Footwear has penetrated no more than perhaps 25 per
cent of its potential markets in Port Moresby and it functions
at no more than 50 per cent of production capacity presently.
The cane section supplies the PNG market with best quality
products, provides training for youths, extends rattan processing
methods to rural areas and acts as an agent for rattan exports
overseas, and provides professional services in dealing with
all areas relating to the rattan industry.
This industry has huge potential for PNG.
Light engineering carries out continuous research and development
in to technologies appropriate for rural and urban communities,
training and apprenticeship for those needing it, and makes
its services available to the urban community.
This division is primarily the implementing centre for the
organization on all appropriate technologies developed and
those under implementation.
Technologies under implementation include metal workshop,
wokabaut somil, deep well water pump, brick manufacturing
moulds, small bakeries and woodwork.
The main role of the Division is to provide the necessary
support to the Managing Director and the Board in realising
the objectives of the Corporation through provision of support
to the other two divisions in Business Development Services
and the SIYB
Programme.
