Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) has been carved up for multinationals, with the government’s indifference only surpassed by the mounting reports of breaches of laws by these companies, according to analyst and attorney at law, Christopher Ram.
“Essentially Region 10 has been carved up and out for BOSAI and RUSAL for their bauxite and now by Bai Shan Lin for their forestry resources. The entire regional development prospects are now entirely in the hands of foreign companies whose sole purpose is to extract and export resources”, Ram, who visited the area on Sunday told Stabroek News on Monday.
He added, “The scale and manner of conduct of Bai Shan Lin’s operations make it clear that they are here for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to extract and ship out logs”. He said that, in the process, these operators are quite prepared to skirt laws and in the process destroy the roads and environment while offering little prospects to the people of the region.
He continued, “In fact what is clear to me is that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government has largely … washed their hands of the region, leaving a disproportionally weak regional administration to deal with the multinational juggernauts”.
In recent weeks the logging operations of Bai Shan Lin of China and Vaitarna of India have come under intense scrutiny as they have failed to establish promised processing plants.
Ram said serious questions have been raised about Bai Shan Lin’s compliance with several of the laws of Guyana, including the Customs Act, the Forestry Act and the EPA Act. The regulators however have become the defenders of the perpetrators instead of trying to put Guyana first, Ram stated. He asserted that even if the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion (GFC) was not a cheerleader for Bai Shan Lin,
