Laba Holdings to help partners

 By ISAAC NICHOLAS

LABA Holdings chairman Raho Kevau has made a special plea to help partners and LNG project developers to expedite capacity building with landowner companies.

He said the current business opportunity for landowner companies was restricted to labour, security and camp management during the construction phase of the LNG plant.

Kevau said the company was now looking at business opportunities that would sustain the people after the construction phase was completed.

He said there was limited involvement by the project developer and partners to deliver the aspirations contained in the national content plan.

“While Laba has been assured of some mandated business activities such as manpower, security and camp management, the community has felt the frustration of a lack of equal participation as equal partners.”

Kevau said the national government and the project developer had created Laba Holdings as an entity entrusted with an equitable distribution of benefits to the landowners who form a vital and necessary partner for the success of the resource project that was of national importance.

“Our partnership has been envisaged in the aspirations of the national content plan. Our mandated service partners had been expected to expedite building of capacity within our community but there has been rather limited involvement in the partnerships.”

“We hope that our service partners realise that the community has aspirations and that our partners have an obligation to fulfill their role to develop people and capacity and create long term benefits for our local communities, instead of bypassing us.” Kevau said.

“I am pleased to announce that Laba special purpose investment (SPI) logistics Ltd is the pioneer venture and have taken the challenge and shown that we can organise an operating entity within a short period of time.

“We aspire to be participating in businesses such as recycling, recreation, supplies, modern agriculture and aquaculture among other business ventures.”

Kevau said this during the payment and presentation of 12 coaster buses that would be used to shuttle construction workers between the four villages of Porebada, Boera, Papa and Lealea to the LNG training facility at Idubada.