Palm oil in the pipeline with 2,000 jobs at home
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

Hj Osman Omar

Brunei Darussalam is on its way to become a major producer of palm oil once approval is granted for such an agricultural industry to be developed here -- to realise the dream of diversification, away from the oil and gas industry. Thanks to a local company, PPMB Holding Sdn Bhd in association with Sarawak's Lotus Potential Sdn Bhd, the country's ambition of becoming a palm oil producer could become a reality.

According to group executive chairman, Hj Osman Omar, the first phase of the proposal is to develop integrated oil palm plantation and palm oil mill at Labu, Temburong, on 7,200 hectares and providing 2,000 jobs for locals. The second and later phases would be to develop unused plots of land in Belait, two in Tutong and another one in Bangar, Temburong for oil palm plantations.

"We have submitted the proposal on Sept 24, 1999 and we are still awaiting a green-light to commence the project," he said, showing the project proposal and the environmental assessment documents to the Borneo Bulletin.

The environmental assessment of the project was being done by Sarawak's Chemsain Consultant Sdn Bhd and Sacammas Sdn Bhd, both based in Kuching.

Hj Osman added that the impact to the environment is little as proven by the findings by the two established environmental assessment companies in Sarawak.

"The outer shells of oil palm trees would be sold to Indonesia. Palm-kernel oil is chemically quite different from the oil from the flesh of the fruit. Palm oil is used in making soap, candles, and lubricating grease and in processing tinplate and coating iron plates," he said. Palm-kernel oil is used in manufacturing such edible products as margarine, chocolate confections, and pharmaceuticals.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin