Despite being pressed to do so, logging companies are not moving with alacrity to set-up valued-added processing facilities and Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman plans to meet with several in the coming weeks.
Trotman last month said that should controversial Chinese company Baishanlin and equally contentious Indian company Vaitarna not produce value-added products by the end of the year, their contracts could be terminated. On Friday, he told Stabroek News that work on the 2015 budget had taken priority but now that it has been passed, work can resume on the scrutinising of forestry companies.
Asked about progress in moving towards value-added processing, Trotman said that it is safe to say that it has not happened and government is engaged in ongoing discussions with the companies. Recently, he said, he placed a hold on the export of locust logs. “It is believed that these were being taken out of the country without a sizeable amount being made available for local furniture manufacturers,” he disclosed.
The minister said that he is hoping to have a meeting with Baishanlin, in particular, about that issue and intends to use the meeting as an opportunity to open the door to some other things.
He said too that Vaitarna has requested a meeting with him because they have received the government’s displeasure at the slow pace at which they are rolling out their proposed plans.
In terms of Barama, the company has given a long list of excuses, he said. “I’ve held two meetings with them and they’ve pointed out to me what they say are some difficulties and so I did undertake to pay a visit before I make a public pronouncement,” Trotman said. He added that his visit will take place before the end of September to both the Land of Canaan and Buckhall facilities and a report will be submitted to Cabinet.
The company has been operating in Guyana since 1991 and benefits from generous tax concessions and according to the minister, he has emphasised to the company representatives that after two decades it is still to deliver to the nation on what it had promised. “They have raised what they consider to be mitigating facts and circumstances that prevented them from implementing fully but we now have… to look again to see how we can implement and what cannot be implemented we will have to set aside but those that they can, we intend to hold them to it,” he said.
Trotman said that the company had submitted a “long list” of factors that hindered it from accomplishing its promises but, at the time, said that he could not remember what they were.
He said value-added is uppermost in government’s agenda and now that the budget debates are over, the work of scrutinising the companies can continue.
Last month, Trotman had said that should Baishanlin and Vaitarna not produce value-added products by the end of the year their contracts could be terminated. “Both have been spoken to already. Both have given a commitment that within a matter of months they will be addressing the value-added concern… We are in July and I expect before the end of the year the nation will start to see value-added products being produced by those two companies,” he said at a post-cabinet media briefing.
He added that should this not happen, “Well then their contracts will have to be reviewed for termination.”
Earlier, Trotman had told Stabroek News that government will be pushing for logging and other companies operating here to do value-added processing locally and companies that do not fulfill their commitments would have to shape up or ship out.
