Dear Editor,
In a letter which was kindly published in the Stabroek News (SN 22-10-2014) and the Guyana Chronicle (GC 22-10-2014) Pinnacle Green Resources (Guyana) Inc. and its parent companies provided comprehensive details of our corporate identity and ownership in response to a rather hostile letter from Assistant Professor Janette Bulkan (SN 15-10-2014). Although we were surprised at the adversarial tone of Dr. Bulkan’s original letter, we felt it was the responsible thing to do, as we embark on a very large investment portfolio in Guyana. We also comprehensively responded to Dr. Bulkan’s accusation that one of our intended investments, an energy plantation in the Pomeroon, was a “land grab,” based on her assertions that the crop we chose was unsuitable to the soil and climate in the Pomeroon. It is unusual for any Foreign Direct Investment initiative to be interrogated by random members of the public in any jurisdiction, outside of organized stakeholder engagements. It is even more unusual for business entities to engage in such a comprehensive explanation of their business approach to an individual citizen, or to offer all of their instruments and agreements with the Guyana Government up for public scrutiny to all and sundry. We however offered such a comprehensive response because we are a transparent company which intends to, and have already, formed many strong local partnerships. No company can, or will, however, entertain a constant inquisition based on spurious and unfounded speculations in the aggressive and accusatory manner in which Dr. Bulkan has sought to engage us in her second letter in the Stabroek News (SN 24-10-2014).
Our scientists have been very clear in their recommendation of the species that we should use for cultivation of the intended energy plantation in the Pomeroon. We intend to spend millions of dollars based on this due diligence. It is our investment to lose or appreciate; we firmly believe we do not need to justify our business decisions to Dr. Bulkan. We have a very competent board of directors who have piloted our company through many successful ventures. Furthermore, if our very competent team of Senior Professors and World Class Scientists needed help, and we felt Dr. Bulkan possessed the necessary expertise to provide that help, we would have already approached her to be a consultant on our project.
Our obligations to the Guyanese public and Government is to respect their laws and regulations, particularly in this instance the phytosanitary and environmental regulations and to maintain our investment activity to the levels we have committed, together with any other stipulations for employment, etc. We intend to do so, but Dr. Bulkan is not on our staff nor is she a shareholder. So we will not be justifying our decisions or profit ratios to her. Dr. Bulkan claims that it will be uncompetitive to produce energy pellets in Guyana compared to the Southeastern United States. Perhaps the learned Assistant Professor will provide us all with a comparative economic analysis. We are sure it will make interesting reading but it will certainly not change our business decision making process. For those types of analysis we rely on professionals with a track record and demonstrated expertise.
Whilst it may be the mandate of Dr. Bulkan to write in the newspapers attacking investors, it is not within the list of things that we feel are germane to our business. So we shall not be engaging in an academic debate (although quite frankly Dr. Bulkan’s missives lack the usual courtesy with which academic debate is conducted) with this academic or any others. We have made our decisions and are complying with our requirements and henceforth shall treat any such aspersions as interesting reading unless in our opinion it constitutes damage to our reputation in which case we shall take the requisite business actions recommended by our board of directors.
Yours faithfully,
Manu Bansal,
Executive Director