Chu Hungbo, Head of controversial Chinese logging company Baishanlin, has been listed as a principal of a venture seeking to quarry in the Amerindian settlement of Batavia in Region Seven but no permission has yet been given as the government is waiting for due diligence to be done.
“I am aware of an application being made, I am not aware of a licence being granted,” Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman told reporters on Friday, when asked about the company’s quarry application. He also informed that Hungbo was listed as a principal in the company.
Further, he explained, “When I became minister I met it [the application] there. I was asked to consider granting the licence on the basis of national need, and I am still to be satisfied that there is a national need for such a thing.”
The minister explained that Batavia is an island community in the Cuyuni River that has communal title for its land.
“The community is one which is titled so under the law they would have to enter firstly into an agreement with the village council or leadership, and secondly, the ministry and GGMC [Guyana Geology and Mines Commission] would have to give [their] no objection and approve it. I am not aware that such licence has been granted,” Trotman asserted.
“I know that the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs has been involved and I have asked that they ensure that if there are negotiations with the village that they are both transparent and in the best interest of the village. I won’t say they are being held up but I don’t believe that the conditions set have been met,” he added.
Baishanlin had asked government for three more years to make good on long-awaited promises but the APNU+AFC government believes that not only the time requested is too much but that leniency and patience have been exhausted.
Baishanlin, said to control some 1.3M hectares of local forests prior to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) moving against it, established a presence here in 2006 and has been accused of making big promises to add value to forestry but failing to do so.
Instead, it kept on gathering forests and increasing the export of logs all the while gaining huge fiscal concessions under the former PPP/C government.
The GFC said in September that it was withdrawing all of the company’s forest concessions. The GFC said that its decision to repossess came after the company failed to deliver on agreed steps to introduce new investors to the Commission and having been given time to prove that it had an acceptable plan to clear approximately $80 million in debt to the commission.
Trotman said on Friday that government’s position as it relates to the company has not changed.
“Following the last move to have their concessions reverted to GFC that is the status quo. They have written to say that they have some investors due and Guyana is always open to receiving investors. So if and when they do come they will be treated as any other investor, fairly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trotman said that Indian logging company Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc seems to have noticed government’s firm stance on contract agreements and has been working to meet its own requirements.
“They have brought in some mills. I think they have gotten the message and they are working to do value added. The GFC continues to monitor them. We are in talks and the expectation is that we can strengthen our relationship and strengthen the application of the laws,” he said.
