Call to help promote investment

By GABRIEL FITO
A LANDOWNER company chairman in East Sepik has expressed the need for police to promote investor confidence and investment in the province.
Turubu Oil Palm landowner company chairman Aron Malijiwi said foreigner investors who came to the province to do business should be protected from all threats and violence so that they stayed on to implement projects which would benefit the government, resource owners and the East
Sepik people.
Malijiwi said projects such as the oil palm estate that Sepik Oil Palm Plantations Ltd was developing on the Sepik plains was an impact project with promising returns in millions of kina and deserved protection and support from police and the provincial government.
The chairman issued a statement yesterday following the arrival of the million kina project developer from Malaysia last month.
“The developer is here now. All I need is full cooperation from the resource owners and the provincial government. And if there is any problem, police must always be on standby to assist.
“The provincial government should also partner with the company by providing a vehicle for police to conduct regular patrols into the project area to ensure that the safety of the developer and its workforce is guaranteed.
“The provincial government must assist because the project would boost its internal revenue when it starts production,” Malijiwi said.
He said construction workers were milling timber for the first 300 houses to be built at the proposed township area at Kemange this year while other developments, including the factory, would follow.
Planting on the second plantation had started, promising a busy year for the company.
The first plantation containing more than 98,000 palm trees was completed last year.