Nature Alert: Malaysian Firms Biggest Foreign Investors In Plantation Sector Of East Kalimantan

Friday, 29 January 2010

Malaysian Firms Biggest Foreign Investors In Plantation Sector Of East Kalimantan

January 29, 2010

Malaysian Firms Biggest Foreign Investors In Plantation Sector Of East Kalimantan

From Nashir Mansor

PONTIANAK, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysian companies are the biggest foreign investors in the plantation sector of resource-rich East Kalimantan, a Malaysia-Indonesia border province, says a senior Malaysian official.

Zairi Basri, the Malaysian Consul based in East Kalimantan, said the companies had invested a whopping RM8.2 billion either through direct investments or via local companies.

"The local authorities are extending good cooperation and support to Malaysian investors to facilitate investments and promptly solve problems arising," he told a group of journalists and businessmen from Sabah headed by former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Harris Salleh.

The 10-day tour of East Kalimantan, sponsored by Berjaya Foundation and coordinated by the Indonesian Consul in Kota Kinabalu, Abas Basori, is to explore investment and business prospects in the province and to forge closer ties with Malaysia and Indonesia.

Zairi said Sime Darby Bhd was among Malaysian companies that have invested substantially in the plantation sector of East Kalimantan while several state governments had expressed interest to invest in the Malaysia-Indonesia border province.

He also said Malaysian companies and state governments were keen to invest in the province's transportation sector and preliminary studies were underway.

As part of Malaysia's commitment to enhance bilateral cooperation with East Kalimantan, Zairi said Sarawak was providing power supply to Badau area in the province.

"A feasibility study is being conducted to directly link power cables from Sarawak to East Kalimantan," he said, adding that the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) was not solely to contribute to Malaysia's development but also pave the way to regional growth.

He said East Kalimantan was a good place for investment given the provincial government's investor-friendly and pro-business policies.

"The local government agencies are supportive and are forthcoming in their approach to welcome and favourably consider investors' plans," he added.

-- BERNAMA

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=472060

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.