A CHINESE company yesterday announced that it plans to inject some US$100M in projects here, primarily in the production of value added forestry products.
President of Bai Shan Lin, Chu Wenze, announced at a press briefing at the company’s Shamrock Gardens, East Coast Demerara office, that over the next three years it intends to inject US$100M into value added production at two locations - Linden and Georgetown in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica).
According to Mr. Wenze, to date some US$10M in various kinds of logging equipment from China and other countries has been imported for felling and timber processing, while another US$5.1M has been received to facilitate the project.
And by the end of June, he said, another US$7M in machinery and equipment is scheduled to arrive.
He said Bai Shan Lin was registered last September and is in partnership with the Beijing Uni-Construction Company (BUCC) which has a 49% share, and is also the source of funding for the operations here.
When operations peak, Bai Shan Lin’s production capacity would reach 300,000 to 500,000 cubic meters of processed timber annually, making it the largest producer of such products in Guyana, Wenze said.
In addition, he indicated that about 800 to 1,000 Guyanese will be employed as his company intends to employ a workforce comprising 80% Guyanese and the remaining 20% will be mainly Chinese technical staff. Profits from its operations will be used to expand into other ventures and businesses here, he said.
The company will be taking over the operations of Jailing at Linden, Wenze pointed out, disclosing that he was involved in funding the operations of that company but it did not honour its obligations of using machinery brought here for the intended purpose and as such the deal went sour.
Consequently, he said, he decided to sever ties with Jailing and venture into his own operation, adding that the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) has given full support to the project and with their support, recruitment of workers for the Linden sawmill has begun.
Wenze said the new company will initially be depending solely on smaller forestry producers for raw materials, but because of its intended scale of operations, it will be seeking forestry concessions to meet its increasing demand for these materials.
In this regard, he said discussions with the government are under way to identify suitable locations.
However, he assured that his company will be seeking to work in partnership with the smaller forestry operators and will even be assisting them with machinery.
On the touchy issue of sustainable and environmentally friendly forestry practices, Wenze said his company will be working in close collaboration with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and will abide by the laws and regulations governing this sector.
Administrative Manger of the company, Ms. Karen Canterbury declared: “Our operations will place emphasis on the processing of the finished product and the semi-finished product in accordance with government’s policy. Moreover, in order to maximise the use of forest resources, a project will be established to utilise the bark, branches, defective wood and factory waste, to make high-density boards. It is estimated that 200,000 cubic metres of high-density boards will be produced within the next three years.”
With respect to workers safety and their right to belong to a trade union of their choice, Wenze said his company will be working closely with the Ministry of Labour and has no problem with workers belonging to trade unions.
He added that in training Guyanese to operate the machinery and equipment of the company, emphasis will be placed on safety and it will abide by the local laws and regulations governing safety of workers.