AS a responsible corporate citizen of Guyana, we are proud to share with our stakeholders the positive progress that has been made with the restoration of the plywood production as is evident by the visit of the Hon. Minister Robert Persaud on April 6, 2011. The objectives of the Plywood Restoration Plans are to enhance the efficiency and productivity of our plywood manufacturing processes under an integrated approach without compromising any of our commitments.

This approach was necessitated by the need to expedite the restoration plans in the most cost effective manner in order to minimize the impact of the fallout.

Equally important is that the expected results of this approach are increases in value added processing with higher plywood output, improvement in the utilization of the timber resources, greater business opportunities for local log suppliers, greater export earnings, improvement of plywood supplies to the local market and overall enhancement of our revenue generation, inter alia.

In terms of employment opportunities, our policy is open to all interested persons that are deemed suitable for the respective areas of work. In this regard, we are confident that so far we have fulfilled all of our commitments to normalize the situation and have acted as a corporate, socially-responsible company.

As an extension to the aforementioned, we are in discussion with the Government of Guyana on matters of interest pertaining to our formal instruments of engagement between us and the government.

While we acknowledge that these discussions are ongoing, at this juncture, we wish to reiterate that that our integrated approach to normalize the plywood production has not resulted in any change or deviation from our business perspective as set out by our formal commitments to the Guyanese Nation.

Given this fact, we will be seeking clarifications on the government’s description of the integrated approach as a ‘New Company’ and ‘operating under a new dimension’ as cause for concern for the operating framework of the company.
We are a long-term investor in Guyana and have met our obligations under the Investment Contract to date. In closing, we will continue to play our part in the development of the country.