Why do not Trotman et al check Amazon .com and validate for themselves a 15 x 18 x 2 slab of purple heart or wamara is in the area of 3 to 5 hundred US. It mans one tree can produce close to a million us processed. We get a few dollars per. The Chinese do not care and will come up with one excuse after another to do what the always do...never deliver and siphon every available dollar out of an economy in terms of natural recourse and in commerce. They see us as big fat juicy steaks to gobble up. Note they are eery where in Guyana dumping poor products and slopping up cash while owning everything making us one big fat cash cow for them. That they do not have money to meet their commitments is bullshit.
BaiShanLin wants two years more to set up processing plant
By Kiana Wilburg
The APNU+AFC Government appears to have stayed its hand in the move to sanction those logging companies that have failed to establish facilities which would add value to Guyana’s highly valued woods.
Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman
Chinese logging giant, Bai Shan Lin wants two more years to get its long-awaited wood-processing facility up and running and it seems as though this has been granted by the new administration, regardless of the fact that such a commitment to the Guyanese people had not been fulfilled for over ten years.
This was made known yesterday during a post-Cabinet meeting with the press at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, was questioned about his threat some months ago to reveal the action which will be taken by the end of October, should Bai Shan Lin and others fail to make any moves to add value to Guyana’s lumber exports.
But up to yesterday, the government seemed to have modified its position against the defaulting company.
Trotman said, “In terms of Bai Shan Lin, we had met with them on successive occasions and we have had discussions with other foreign companies that have been in the forestry sector. Bai Shan Lin as we know and I don’t think it’s a secret that it has not complied in its entirety. I have met with representatives of the China Development Bank who of course are financing Bai Shan Lin.
“I am led to believe that the company itself is in the process of restructuring. Then it will reengage with the government, but as for now there has been a pause because there has been a process of restructuring its corporate activities and seeking new financing from China Development Bank.”
The Governance Minister also said that when he last spoke with the company (and this was three weeks ago), he was informed that the Chinese logging company was in no position to have the mills that it said it would have imported within the next ten months.
As a result of this sad situation for the company he said, “They have asked for two years and we have had discussions with them about an alternative mill and that is on board. But as I said, much depends on Bai Shan Lin securing the financing.”
Bai Shan Lin is the very company which Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, had said, mimics the behaviour of a bacterium called spirogyra. He had said during the 2015 election season that this “bacterium” gobbles what it wants and keeps splitting and spreading and that is exactly what Bai Shan Lin is doing.
He had said, “With the rate at which this spirogyra (Bai Shan Lin) is going, when you get to my age, Bai Shan Lin would have gobbled up everything.
“But let it be known that once the laws of the country are breached by foreign or local companies, we will speak about it and we will take action. The level of examination and action to follow will surly arrest this wanton destruction of our forests.”
Bai Shan Lin had given conflicting reasons in the past to justify the delay of establishing this wood-processing facility. In fact, Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), James Singh a few months ago had also revealed that the company indicated to him that the current holdup is as a result of “financial difficulties.”
Singh had explained, “They told us that they have been experiencing some financial difficulties in the sense that they were unable to meet some bench marks for certain lending agencies…We met with them and they had some concerns. They indicated to us that they met with some government officials and are expected to submit a revised programme in relation to the facility to them and wait for it to be reviewed.”
He had said, too, that a team from the China Development Bank also accompanied the Chinese company to the meeting. The Commissioner said that he told Bai Shan Lin to make the wood processing facility their “priority.”
Singh said that the company promised that once the “financial difficulties” are over, it will also submit the revised programme on the facility to the Commission.
A few months ago, Trotman had told the media that the companies this time around will not escape sanctions for should they fail to make good on their promise then their contracts will be reviewed for termination.
Trotman who is also vested with some responsibility for the natural resources of the nation had explained that Government will be looking at the concessions that have been granted to certain, if not all companies in the forestry sector.
Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas, had said that the behaviour of the logging companies such as Bai Shan Lin which have benefitted significantly from Guyana’s forest resources is absolutely “unacceptable”.
He said too that he will be recommending to the David Granger-led administration for some of their concessions to be taken away.
“Guyana cannot continue to be giving out hundreds of millions of dollars worth in these tax breaks or concessions and we aren’t benefitting from value added operations. If companies make a commitment to do so then the ethical thing to do is to deliver what was promised. If not, their concessions should be taken away,” the economist had said.
In 2014, BaiShan Lin blamed the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) for delaying its application for its wood processing factory. In one of its advertisements, the company stated that in 2008, it applied to the “Government of Guyana, through the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and other agencies, to lease lands to set up a factory to process logs and engage in value-added production, such as the making of furniture, craft and hardwood flooring.”
It had said then that it was experiencing delays.
Kaieteur News later reported that GO-Invest had no such application. BaiShanLin had nothing to say when this was revealed. This caused many, including the then opposition, to challenge the previous government to make public the investment agreement it signed onto with the Chinese logging company. This was never done.
In April, the company then blamed the “hostile” media reports during 2014 for dispiriting financiers.
In a statement, the Chinese company had said that it is concerned about the apparent “misrepresentations and false reports” being carried by some sections of the media on its operations in Guyana. It identified Kaieteur News as the leader of the “hostile” campaign and even cited a KN article with the headline: ‘BaiShanLin delays US$70M wood processing factory for gold, housing, logging.’
But in its statement, it did not deny that it was approved ‘US$70M’ for certain activities.
With regard to the wood processing plant in the Linden area that was to be constructed, BaiShanLin, one of the largest exporters of the country’s prime species of wood, had complained that it has indeed suffered major setbacks in completing its wood processing facility that will create hundreds of jobs for Guyanese.
It claimed that these “setbacks” directly relate to lack of adequate funding from its financiers, who, since last year “when these sustained attacks began,” became concerned about the “soundness of investing further in what appeared to be a hostile environment.”
