Palm oil facts to be taught in school, proposal for tourism afoot

Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok has mooted to include the Palm Oil Experience Centre into an official tourist destination of the country in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2020.

This is after she launched the Sime Darby Plantation Bhd's educational hub at Pulau Carey today.

She said she will propose the idea to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry once Sime Darby Plantation Bhd is ready to receive more international tourists.

"That all depends on how ready the Sime Darby site is. This can always be listed under the tourist destination list.

"Once Sime Darby is more ready, then maybe we can propose its Palm Oil Experience Centre to the Tourism Ministry," she told the media after launching the Palm Oil Experience Centre today.

Sime Darby Plantation Bhd chief advisor and value officer Franki Anthony Dass, who attended the press conference, said the educational hub, which opened in March is ready to take in foreign tourists.

Kok also said her ministry will be allocated RM27 million under Budget 2020 for the publicity work under the Love My Palm Oil campaign and to deal with the anti-palm oil movement.

In her speech earlier, she also thanked other ministries that were so supportive of promoting palm oil, including the Education Ministry and Tourism Ministry, as well as the Youth and Sports Ministry.

She expects that learning about palm oil will be included in the primary school syllabus next year.

"We have met the Education Ministry and its director-general (Amin Senin), and they agreed to try to include the palm oil," Kok said.

She reminded those who operate oil palm estates larger than 100 acres to obtain the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification soon.

MPSO will not renew the license of operators without the certificate next year as this is part of the effort of Malaysian Palm Oil Board to move toward mandatory certification, she said.

In the long run, Kok said smallholders may need to be educated on good agricultural practices and stop open burning.

Meanwhile, she said Indonesian authorities have updated Putrajaya on its findings concerning four Malaysian companies implicated in open burning in the republic.

In September, four Malaysian companies which operate oil palm plantations in Indonesia were accused of causing forest fires within their plantations.

The four Malaysian companies are IOI Corporation, Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, TDM Bhd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd.

Sime Darby Plantation Bhd said the fire on Sept 3 occurred outside the operational area of PT Sime Indo Agro, which is part of Minamas Group, a wholly-owned Indonesian subsidiary of Sime Darby Plantation.

Sime Darby Plantation Bhd group managing director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha has denied the allegations its plantation had caused any forest fires.

He said the majority of the Malaysian companies had long ceased the prohibited practise of open burning, adding that machinery was used to clear land.

Mohamed Helmy, however, said that Indonesian villagers who resided inside the palm oil concession areas used open burning for land clearing.

"We were given a concession land (to plant oil palm and the land is partly) resided by settlers and villagers. Some chose to stay there and overtime, the settlements grow.

"When the dry period was extended this year, fires started spreading (after villagers cleared the land). This was what happened in the Sime Darby Plantation (there)," he said.

According to Mohamad Helmy, Indonesian authorities visited the plantation after accusations were levelled by an Indonesian minister.

"They came to us, and we showed there where the fire started. There were satellite images and it was not possible to run away," he said, adding the company has yet to be informed of any findings.  -Mkini