A new political party in Papua New Guinea says the country needs to expand its capital base and the way to do this is by making superannuation compulsory.
A spokesperson for the Indigenous People's Party, Dick Ermot, says the party wants to give the people more control over the country's vast resources.
He says the millions of Papua New Guineans raising cash crops, such as coffee, cocoa and copra, are outside the formal wage economy and banking sector, but they have money which could be harnessed through compulsory superannuation.
"And that will capture those who are in the agriculture sector. And what we want to see is that companies that deal with commodities, that are already buying products from those the OECD countries would call unemployed, are then obligated by law to deduct their savings and save, and help them to obtain and set up bank accounts. Because they are already involved in economic activity."
Dick Ermot says such a scheme would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in savings each month.
