Plantations Committee set up by Public Enterprise Development Ministry
A ‘Plantations Committee’ to peruse a host of investment proposals for state-owned plantations has been set up by Kabir Hashim, Minister Public Enterprise Development, ministry officials said. ”We’re looking for expertise on a restructuring model for the plantations. We get many proposals by investors and we’re aiming to see what works best for specific plantations,” an official told the Business Times. Separately Eran Wickramaratne, Deputy Minister Public Enterprise Development, told the Business Times that this isn’t a ‘transaction based’ committee and to make matters clear, they aren’t interested in ‘deal making’. “This is an internal consultative committee which has specialists from the private sector. They’re looking at a whole new model for the state owned plantations,” he said adding that this committee has six members.
He said that this committee is considering plantations as ‘not only plantations’, but also as state assets. “So in terms of state assets the plantations have lands, minerals, water, beauty/ scenery and plants. With this concept, the Committee is looking at the plantations to maximise the returns of these assets.” Mr. Hashim told the Business Times on an earlier occasion that his ministry is in the process of restructuring key State-owned Enterprises (SOE) and pointed out that the plantations sector is one that’s thoroughly mismanaged to the extent that some worker statutory payments haven’t been paid.