A young private entrepreneur and community leader in Port Moresby, Mr Ben Dangima has called on the National Government to dig deeper into the current socio-economic facing the nation and urge them to solve it through appropriate policies and legislation amendment in Parliament. A concerned Ben Dangima stated that he was frantically sad to witness the unfolding of protest by disciplinary forces, unprecedented looting, riot in the nation’s capital that resulted in civilian deaths and loss of business the runs into billions of Kina, last week. He added that the Public Servants play an important role in implementing the National Government policies in serving the state and its citizens. Their needs in salaries and remunerations must be properly taken care of through the appropriate administrative procedures to ensure future incident of such magnitude does not happen again. “Our disciplinary forces, teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants and other professionals serving in the public service by virtue of law are entitle to appropriate salaries that must not be tempered while current inflation and rising cost of living are putting extra pressure on them." “We have economic challenges that are the root cause of the outburst of the many upraising of social misbehaviours in our societies." “Port Moresby city population has grown to over one million since 1975, and the continuous migration of urban drift is because people are looking for a better life in the city thus this has also put government under stress to provide better public utilities, job creations and revenue making." Dangima further stated that it is a time bomb we are facing now, with mass youths remaining idle without opportunities and not engaging in commerce and business activities. Mr Dangima said that as responsible constitutional office holders, particularly the city hall that is responsible for taking care of its city residents, they have not done enough to address the socio- economic problems that have been building up and have now spilled out over time. He is now urging the city planners to seriously do an analysis assessment on the recent confusion and incorporate better plan to assist our struggling populace and the business communities in the private sectors and the public service. Dangima further explained that the National Capital District usually get a highest GST share annually and its revenues are about 9 times the average of all the Provincial government despite having a very narrow range of expenditure responsibilities. “NCD’s revenue is also very high compared to other large towns in PNG, therefore its important they are accountable to the use of all public funding; thus, it must be equitably distributed for the residents’ benefits." “While it is their regulatory responsibilities to provide municipal services and manage the city affairs, the needs of our simple people who are providing mass labour, doing small entrepreneurs, living in the settlements and in Motu Koitabuan villages must be met, everyone in the Nations Capital needs a fair share of benefits." When people are hungry and do not have enough money to buy food and survive, they sort to illegal activities and its time we must embrace respect, bring back safety and confidence to our city. "We are a nation of thousand tribes, we have survived as a sovereign nation in the last 48 years, this is our country, and we must continue to build our development aspiration with positive attributes, better policies and legislations." “It’s time now that the National Government need to put the interest of our people first and get the economic policies advisors heads and agencies rolling to create more revenue, address unemployment, address inflation, address foreign exchange issues and the devaluation of Kina that has contributed to the high cost of living in Papua New Guinea.”