PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds, over the weekend, visited one of Guyana’s single largest investment firms in the forest industry, Barama Company Limited, at Buck Hall in Region 2, where he got a first-hand look at the overall operation.
During his visit, the Prime Minister pledged government’s commitment to making available cheaper electricity, in response to calls by Barama officials. He said the Government remains committed, but its every effort is hampered by the Opposition in Parliament.

The Prime Minister referred to the recent budget cuts which would affect the Low Carbon Development Strategy, under which the Amaila Hydro Project falls.
“Electricity is a significant cost item in operations such as milling sawmills and veneer plants; yes. We want lower cost electricity, we have been working for a number of years to get our energy from the hydro development, but that has been met with several blocks by the Opposition.”
The Prime Minister added that the government will remain committed to the project, and do all in its power to make it successful, hence “we decided to forego the return on our equity so that the electricity price will be kept low”.
Meanwhile, Mohindra Chand, Head of Corporate Affairs and Forest Planning for Barama, spoke of some of the company’s challenges and successes. He said that over the years of the company’s operation, it moved from being a producer of plywood to being diversified as it has fully integrated operation from logging to logistics, trucking, barging, sawmilling, and veneering, which now constitute the single largest investment in the local forest industry to date.
“We are also one of the longest serving direct foreign investment in Guyana… we see a lot of prospects moving forward and  we anticipate to be here far longer than we have been here so far”.

Chand added that over the years, the company has encountered several challenges as the timber industry has unique constraints, but “we nevertheless persevered.”
“We believe that with great support from government, we can see a lot more being done in the industry, especially, in the area of value added (products). We know that this is of major national interest to Guyana, and Barama has led that charge to a great extent.”
Further, Chand said, the company is cognisant of the fact the natural resources of Guyana are of much interest to many stakeholders, including those who are in the extractive industry, and even those who have an interest in safeguarding the environment.
“To this end, Barama has been able to establish a certification programme currently at the stage of verified legal origin, which says to any stakeholder that our timber has been legally obtained and this can be proven by a traceability system.”
However, Chand explained that the certification currently is the largest in the world for a single block of tropical forest and this is just the beginning of the company’s responsible practices.
“In another three years,” Chand said, “the company is expected to elevate the status of that certificate to a higher level, where it can show more in-depth compliance and not just legal origin.
“This by itself puts Guyana on the world map, and we are proud that we have led the charge, and there are many more opportunities in this regard.”
Meanwhile, in moving forward, there are some issues that are to be addressed jointly by the Government, Barama and other stakeholders. One such issue is land use.
“We know that the mining industry is a very permanent industry, and it plays a very critical role in the economy; and as a result, we see the need to co-exist, but that by itself requires some amount of cooperation and certain understanding,” Chand said.
“I think we need to address the issue of infrastructure, roads in particular, utilisation of the forest, and I see that the government has taken on a lot of policies to address this. We want to play our part as being a direct stakeholder so we can share with government, issues on the ground that can be addressed.”

Energy has proven to be one of the major cost factors to the company, especially on the manufacturing side.  “We are currently not as competitive as we can be, given the cost of energy internationally. I’m talking about our products; they can attract greater margin of returns if we can just bring down the cost of energy.”
Chand took the opportunity to call on all stakeholders at the national level to do what’s best for Guyana and pass the Anti- Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) bill.
“Today we are faced with a new threat to our business; that is AML/CFT Bill, which is at the national level for debate. We are already feeling the squeeze; our financial transactions are taking weeks as compared to days previously, and in many instances it’s depriving us of timely cash flow.”

(GINA)