Nature Alert: Sarawak to focus on exporting timber to Middle East

Sunday, 27 September 2009

Sarawak to focus on exporting timber to Middle East

Published: Sunday September 27, 2009 ,

The Star, Malaysia

KUCHING: Sarawak will focus on the Middle East market for its future timber exports, especially as the global economy is expected to pick up by the second or third quarter of next year.

Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) General Manager Datuk Len Talif Salleh said Sunday that a delegation from STIDC would be going on a trade mission to Jeddah, Dubai and Oman next month to promote the state's timber products, especially plywood and sawn timber.

"We are confident the economy will pick up (in the second or third quarter of next year) so we must prepare our groundwork so that we are are ready," he told reporters at his Hari Raya open house at Jalan Bako, here.

In terms of value, he said, the Middle East market had steadily increased, registering around RM150mil yearly, but the volume was not big compared to the demand for Sarawak semi-finished timber products.

He said the export markets of India, China and, to a certain extent, Japan comprised 60 percent of the total worth of RM7bil last year while exports to Europe and the United States were minimal.

"However there was a 25 percent decrease in export value and volume in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year due to the global recession but India, China and Japan sustained us over this period," he said.

As plywood product was the most affected, he said, flexibility, in terms of policy, on cash flow provision was given to local companies so that they could sustain over that period. - Bernama

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/27/nation/20090927150819&sec=nation

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.