Bernama 27 Jun 09;
PORT MORESBY, June 27 (Bernama) -- A leading figure in the business community in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has said criticism by environmental NGOs of Malaysian investment in PNG's forestry industry was unwarranted and unhelpful, as reported by the PNG media.
"There is an innuendo here which is totally out of place in a country like PNG where ethnicity is a very sensitive issue, as recent events have shown," said Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea Forest Industries Association, Bob Tate.
He made clear the recent events he was referring were the anti-Chinese riots in PNG last month.
Tate criticized the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR), an anti-forestry NGO for employing unethical tactics to advance its campaign to undermine the commercial forestry industry in PNG.
Tate was commenting on the release of a detailed report on CELCOR's campaign via news dissemination agency, ITS Global, Melbourne.
The report showed CELCOR based its campaign on lurid accusations of human rights abuse, sexual abuse of employees and even insinuations the forest industry fostered gun-running and people trafficking, he said.
He also said the report examined all these claims in detail and found they lacked substantiation.
"The report found CELCOR had used these accusations to justify claims that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) should investigate a leading PNG forestry company for human rights abuse and to pressure ANZ Bank customers in Australia to urge that it cut ties with the timber industry," said Tate.
Tate said the campaign failed because the Australian Government officials ruled they did not provide grounds for investigation by the OECD and because customers of the ANZ Bank did not respond as CELCOR hoped.
Now CELCOR and its associates in the Friends of the Earth Network, including Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Friends of the Earth in United Kingdom are lobbying around the world to block timber exports from PNG, and stymie Malaysian investment, he added.
Tate said it was time for CELCOR and its associates to stop these tactics which in the end only threaten the livelihoods of 20,000 or more people who depend on the forestry industry in PNG.
The forests in PNG are owned by local landowners who support the forest industry.
Claims of forests in PNG are under threat are also wrong as 60 per cent of PNG is forested and half of that area is not available for commercial forestry, he pointed out.
Tate said Malaysian investors in PNG have made major contributions to economic development in a poor country and should be congratulated for their contributions to national development.
"Papua New Guinea needs more, not less, Malaysian investment," he added.
-- BERNAMA
