|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Monday, 01 November 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Business | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Govt.'s investor friendly policy lauded: Top Singapore edible oil manufacturer eyes new ventures in Lanka by Lionel Yodhasinghe A Singapore based leading edible oil manufacturer and distributor Wilmar Holdings Pvt Ltd. in collaboration with Pyramid Lanka (Pvt) Ltd would expand its business in Sri Lanka next year. The company has earmarked two new ventures apart from the current US$10 million oil refinery plant in Muthurajawela Industrial Park. The WH chairman Khoon Hong Kuok who was in Colombo last week for discussions with the Government on his expansion projects and to inspect the ongoing project said that he would convince the other big prospective Asian businessmen of the invester friendly climate in the country and invest more in Sri Lanka. Wilmar Holdings is one of the leading Companies engaged in processing, refining, merchandising, and distributing of Palm Oil and Palm related Oil, and other oil seeds related products in Asia and it markets edible oil and related products globally. During a meeting with Industries, Tourism and Investment Promotion Minister Anura Bandaranaika, Ports, Aviation and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Agriculture, Irrigation and Dairy Development Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Colombo last week, Khoon commended the Government's Investment Policy and said Asian investors should use Sri Lanka to benefit under the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA). He said the Edible Oil Refinery in Muthurajawela is a 100% export oriented Company under the BOI, and has plans to invest on two other projects in collaboration with Pyramid Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. next year. "We believe the tremendous growth for edible oil products in Asia will continue, particularly in the Indian Sub-Continent (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and China due to its large population. The per capita consumption of edible oils in these countries remains extremely low in comparison to those in the developed countries, Khoon said. He said Sri Lanka is strategically placed to be a manufacturing hub for edible oil products, due to its location in the Indian Sub-Continent and its investor friendly policies. In view of this, we have proposed to build a refinery, hydrogenation unit and packing facility, jetty, tank terminal and a silo near the port to facilitate the logistics for the refinery. The company expects to refine 300 mt at the Muturajawela daily and 200mt of them will be exported to India under the Indo-Sri Lanka FTA while 50mt will be exported to Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Middle East. About 50mt will be supplied to the local market in the form of bakery fats, shortening, margarine and edible oil in consumer packs, Khoon said. Wilmar Trading and its affiliates own five palm oil refineries, four palm kernel crushing plants and three copra crushing facilities in Indonesia and Malaysia, with an annual palm oil refining, palm kernel crushing and copra crushing capacities of 4,000,000 metric tons 800,000 metric tons and 300,000 metric tons. It also has its own oil palm plantations and several palm oil mills in Indonesia. In China, our joint venture companies operate eight soybean crushing facilities, nine edible oil refineries and two fragrant groundnut crushing plants. Our soybean crushing plants handle 6.2 million metric tons of beans per annum khoon said. In October 2000, the group completed the construction work of a joint venture edible oil refinery of 3,000 metric tons per day capacity in western India, which is the largest single refinery unit in India. With consolidated sales of approximately US$3 billion in 2002, the group and the joint venture companies are now the largest palm oil refiner, palm kernel crusher and specially fats manufacturer in Indonesia; the largest exporter of palm oil and palm kernel oil and palm kernel expeller and related products in Indonesia; and the largest soybean crusher and a leading fragrant peanut oil producer in China. Deputy Ministers Sripathi Suriyarachchi and Arjuna Ranathunge, Directors of Pyramid Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Sajad Mawzoon, Omar Haji Sulaiman and Pratheepan Karunagaran also participated in the discussion. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
