BORNION TIMBER WILL NEED 8,750 RUBBER TAPPERS

Bornion Timber will need 8,750 rubber tappers

KENINGAU May 5, 2012: Bornion Timber Sdn Bhd will need about 8,750 rubber tappers once it has planted its 35,000 hectares of plantation with rubber trees.

Disclosing this here yesterday, its chairman, Datuk Wee Kok Tiong, said the company had so far planted more than 11,000 hectares with rubber trees.

“Our success today is what transpired from the joint effort between the public (government) and private-partnership (PPP) initiative by our Federal Government,” he said in his speech at the official opening ceremony of Bornion Timber Sdn Bhd rubber tapping under the Forest Plantation Development Programme at the company’s base camp in Sook here.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok tapped the first rubber tree to mark the official launch of the rubber tapping ceremony.

Wee said the company needed all the support, especially from the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry.

Furthermore, he said along with the company’s upstream investment, it will start investing in a Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) factory with about 50,000 to 70,000 tons of annual production in stages, to cater for its own latex production.

“We also envisage setting up natural and rubber wood processing facilities in the near future. Besides, there will be an enormous investment opportunity in engineering wood processing complex here.

“We also envisage to set up Bio Technology Division and Eco Tourism. We foresee a billion dollar investment in the near future.” he said.

Wee said Bornion Timber creates job opportunities in the interior of Sabah for economic transformation.

He said the company was also committed to set up a rubber training centre and hoped the PPP initiative can be apprehended.

“All the hard work of establishing a rubber plantation will slowly pay off beginning today with Tan Sri’s (Bernard Dompok) presence here to tap the first rubber tree,” he said.

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Pendapatan eksport kayu-kayan mencecah RM20.03b tahun lalu

KENINGAU 2012/05/04: Pendapatan eksport produk kayu-kayan negara mencecah RM20.03 bilion sepanjang tahun lalu, sekali gus menyumbang kepada pertumbuhan ekonomi negara, kata Menteri Perusahaan Perladangan dan Komoditi, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.