Forestry Ministry to take over Cloudy Bay

THE Ministry of Forestry will be taking over the operations of Cloudy Bay in Central once it receives clearance from the State Solicitor, Forestry Minister Douglas Tomuriesa says.
Tomuriesa told Parliament that they wanted to see more development in the area.
Central Governor Robert Agarobe had raised the point that since the operations was closed 10 years ago, people in the area had not received the services they used to enjoy.
Tomuriesa said the Cloudy Bay issue was “contagious”.
“The Cloudy Bay operations license was owned by the PNG Sustainable Development who then sold it to ARAB Group. But the ARAB Group stopped working to security reasons,” he said.
“We’ve gone to court which has cleared it. We now wait for clearance from the State Solicitor before we can take over the operations (and) bring development and services to the people in the area.”
Tomuriesa also called on the people to be careful of those selling their licences which were about to expire.
“This is done without our knowledge and once the new operators find that the license is about to expire they take us to court. Such actions must be stopped,” he said.