By Marie Sitong
Encik Henry Lau planting the first tree.
BINTULU - The Sarawak Forestry Department yesterday officially handed
over a 54,000-hectare site for tree plantation development project to
Grand Perfect Sdn Bhd in Kakus District, about 90 kilometres away from
Bintulu.
Datu Cheong Ek Choon , Director of Forests, heralded the start of the
plantation development for the Pulp and Paper project at a tree planting
ceremony held at K1D site yesterday morning while handing over the area to
Chief Executive Officer of Grand Perfect Sdn Bhd, Encik Henry Lau.
Grand Perfect is a joint venture company set up by a consortium of
three major timber companies in Sarawak - KTS Timber Industries Bhd,
Samling Strategic Corporation Sdn Bhd and Ta Ann Holding Bhd.
On December 5, 2002, the company signed an agreement with the Staye
Government of Sarawak for the establishment and maintenance of major tree
plantations in Bintulu region.
The plantations, according to Datu Cheong, is the largest scale of its
kind for purely planting Acacia mangium tree and they are under the
jurisdiction of the Forestry Department to supply wood for a pulp and
paper project on a sustainable basis.
The joint venture partners had made substantial progress since signing
of the agreement and they had established offices, camps, nurseries and
mobilised manpower and machinery to commence the establishment of the
plantations.
"The tree planting ceremony marks the start of the planting operations,
which will establish 54,000 hectares of sustainable managed industrial
tree plantation over the next three years. The estimated cost for the
whole project is RM180 million. |
