Adenan rejects DAP's short-term, smaller timber concession idea

A DAP suggestion for the tenure of the Sarawak timber concession licence to be reduced and the concession broken into smaller areas and handled by smaller companies is not workable and will disrupt the industry, said Chief Minister Adenan Satem.

He said that if the concession licence tenure was shorter, "the operators will not be keen to go for downstream activities.

"And there will not be insufficient time for them to recoup their capital and make a profit on their investment," he said when commenting on the suggestion made recently by Sarawak DAP chairperson Chong Chieng Jen.

Adenan was addressing the management, workers, and family members of the WTK Timber Group, one of the six major timber companies in the state, at the Civic Centre in Sibu today.

The five other companies are the Rimbunan Hijau, KTS, Samling, Ta Ann, and Shin Yang groups.

A shorter logging licence tenure would see the timber companies preferring to sell logs rather than go downstream and create more jobs, Adenan said.

More than 100,000 workers in the timber industry will lose their jobs, he added.

"Chong obviously does not know what he is talking about and neither does he know the dire consequences of his suggestion," he said.

- Bernama