Claims that the World Bank and Papua New Guinea’s government are trying to close down the country’s timber industry have been fiercely denied.
The World Bank’s local representative and Papua New Guinea’s chief secretary said statements attributed to Forest Industries Association president Stanis Bai were “misleading”. They insisted their actions under the bank’s Forest and Conservation Project were in order to make logging firms operate within the law.
The wrangle erupted following the suspension of a timber permit operated by Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijau group in Gulf Province.
