Written by Asia Pacific Solidarity - Sarawak on 7th August 1993 in
peg:rainfor.general.
Source : The Boeneo Post Date : 7th August 1993 Dateline : Kuala
Lumpur Byline : Bernama (Malaysia's official news agency)
MTIDC TO COUNTER ANTI-TROPICAL TIMBER CAMPAIGN : KENG YAIK
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KUALA LUMPUR, Fri. - The Ministry of Primary Industries has
recently directed the Malaysian Timber Industrial Development
Council (MTIDC) to establish an office in the United Kingdom to
coordinate efforts to counter the anti-tropical timber campaign,
particularly from the European Community.
Its ministerr, Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik said towards this end,
the contribution to the funds facilitating MTIDC to undertake its
role successfully must be forthcoming from all sectors of the
wood-based industries.
"The battle to counter the anti-tropical timber sentiment must be
pursued continuously", he said when delivering his speech at the
Malaysian Panel Manufacturers' Association annual dinner here last
night.
He added apart from other major tropical timbe producers including
Malaysia, other non-tropical forests should also contribute
towards the world environment stability. "Policies and mesures
proposed for the management of tropical foests should not be
discriminatory and imposed only on topical forests", said Dr Lim.
He added that this message had to be drummed in both at official
and business fora so that provisions of a successor to the
International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) would encompass
temperate and boreal forests as well.
Dr Lim said the forestry and timber sector was now a major
component in the Malaysian economy, just next to petroleum and gas
as the leading export earner in the primary commodity sector,
accounting for RM$10.4 billion or 29 percent of the county's total
commodity export earnings in 1992.
He added, exports of plywood from the first quarter of 1993 had
already reached RM450 million, an increase of 50 percent over the
volume exported in the corresponding period in 1992.
With the current situation prevailing in the exports of plywood,
the recognition of the plywood sector into the RM1 billion club
attained two years ago when its export reached more than a billion
ringgit, was set to remain, said Dr Lim.
However he added, due to the current buoyant market, manufacturers
were urged not to take advantage of the situation to act
irresponsibly by accepting orders but not fulfilling them when
prices move upwards.
Malaysian manufacturers must always maintain the good name of
being reliable suppliers of plywood to the world, he said adding
that they should also strive harder towards improving recovery and
improving the present utilisation of small diameter logs.
"In order to remain competitive, I strongly urged those plywood
mills which have yet to modernise their operations to do so
urgently", he said.
Besides several value added products such as wire mesh plywood,
furniture and laminated veneer lumber, which were starting to come
on stream from the plywood factory, Dr Lim also said the
industry's effort at market diversification had also started to
show results with the Asia Pacific Region emerging as an important
market. -- BERNAMA.
--- * Origin: Asia Pacific Solidarity - Sarawak (90:600/108)--