By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Chairman of the Association of Chinese Enterprise in Guyana, Andrew Jin concluded that the bombardment of Chinese logging company – Bai Shan Lin’s – operations in Guyana is an attack on Chinese investment.
Addressing allegations that the company is involved in exploitation and indiscriminate logging, Jin along with John Willems, former Managing Director of Willems Timber and Mohindra Chand, President of the Forest Products Association believe that there is too much sensational reporting on the issue and claims are being made before verification and that which cannot be substantiated.
The trio was at the time speaking on the radio programme ‘Hard Talk’ on 90.1 Love FM this morning, Sunday, August 17.
“We are quite shocked by the bombardment of reporting on Bai Shan Lin,” Jin said; adding that “it is an attack on investment and we are alarmed at the association.”
The Chairman, whose mandate surrounds guiding Chinese investors, said he is still to be provided with substantial proof to show that Bai Shan Lin has violated the rules of agreement, which it entered with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
In fact, both Bai Shan Lin and the GFC has refuted the allegations of irregularities and counter claimed that no law has been broken and all logging is done within the harvest limit.
Meanwhile, Chan who is also a member of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) says the Forestry Sector is probably the most regulated in Guyana.
“There is always a concern that logging operations are outside environmental safeguards … people see barge loads of log and think it’s a harm to environment but that is a misconstrued conception and therein lies the problem,” Chan reasoned.
Willems also added to the debate which has occupied the covers of local newspapers for the past week, saying that while people have provided photos of the log yard showing stocked timber, he is yet to see a photo the damage which persons have claimed is being done to the forest.
He believes that it would be helpful if the GFC and government by extension reveal the nature and detail of agreement.
Region Ten Chairman, Sharma Solomon and Stakeholder in the Forestry Sector, Phillip Bynoe were invited on ‘Hard Talk’ by host, Chris Chapwanya to which they both agreed.
However, Solomon at the last minute requested a change in the recording time of the programme, which Chapwanya has agreed to.
The two are expected to debate the issue sometime this week on 90.1 FM.
bai shan lin made a serious mistake in this whole issue, that is ,paying for a full page ad in kaieteur news to rebut the lies they themselves manufactured . this will only encourage kaieteur news to manufacture more lies against this company and other companies .bai shan lin should take its case to the public through other sections of the media and sue kaieteur news for the vicious slander to recover the cost of their advertisement.
You need to get your grammar right them talk about any thing. who are you and where are you from.
I AGREE
gentlemen, the whole thing is a contrived controversy like the ones before-marriot ,amaila falls ,national stadium, berbice river bridge,president’s pension speciality hospital,the beal space station in the north west and I can go on almost ad infinitum. the problem is ,none of these projects and issues were ever proven to be what kaieteur news and the opposition said they were .the bigger problem is that kaieteur news and the opposition never issued an apology for the false propaganda they spread and the investment they prevented. this should not surprise us as hoyte plainly told the investors and would be investors to “fade away.”
If Chinese companies are deemed to be ripping off the country of its natural resources without adequate compensation, disregarding its laws and damaging environment it is a concern.
If we don’t weed our garden, it will be destroyed!
Now if the forest is managed properly, it will be better. Trees should be replanted by these companies and roads rebuilt.
Chinese should make their presence known in all aspects of Guyanese Society. So is red, yellow, black and white! We all belong there.
Wake up Guyanese ur not Chinese no Guyanese can go to China and do shit We have to protect our country it belongs to us not China any deal our GOVERNMENT makes must be in the best interest of the Guyanese people The Chinese come into our country and only employ chinese while Guyanese people are jobles and suffering and when ur employed ur treated like a slave and payed next to nothing is that the best interest for Guyanese??? in other countries they follow the rules and work accordingly lets curb the slackness here and the slackness comes from the head. I dont mind which Guyanese run this country weather PPP PNC OR AFC IT does not matter .What matters is when ur at the top you must have the country and its people interest as top priority so people wake, up when we leave Guyana our status is Guyanese not PPP PNC OR AFC.so WE THE GUYANESE people must stand up for our rights against any bad decisions our Government makes.
bobby according to emile and all the pncites it means the chinese ripping off candad and america big time too….these clowns have no idea what they talk about…but hey they are free to blab….had their pnc still in power they all might have died out long ago
emile , the negative stories about Chinese ripping off these countries’ resources are like the negative stories being peddled here– nancy stories. do you think all the governments in these countries will just stand idly by and allow the Chinese to rip off their countries?
get your african kit n kit to come in with their money and the chinese and indians business will go
its only now u guys waking up to what the opposition doing?? the opposition dont want chinese in guyana…..the opposition dont want indians doing business in guyana…the whole world know it…stabroek news and kaieteur news are peddling the opposition racists hate…
With multiplied thousands of Chinese in Africa, the West Indies, Latin America, South America (including Guyana), let Andrew Jin tell us how many citizens from those regions mentioned are working and living in China. Let him tell us why there are so many negative stories, especially of Chinese ripping off host nations’ resources. If the White man was bad, it took decades to happen, but with the Chinese there is a rush to be worse.