Company type | Private Limited Company |
---|---|
Industry | Forestry, Plantations, Media, ICT, Hospitality |
Headquarters | 2°15′52.6″N111°50′38.1″E / 2.264611°N 111.843917°E Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia |
Key people | Tan Sri' Dato Tiong Hiew King |
Number of employees | 10,000 [1] |
Website | RH group Malaysia homepage |
Rimbunan Hijau is a Malaysian multinational logging corporation controlled by Malaysian businessman Tiong Hiew King. The company has operations in many countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Vanuatu, New Zealand and Russia.
In Papua New Guinea, Rimbunan Hijau is the single biggest logging operator, and runs the country's biggest sawmill. It also owns one of the two major newspapers in the country, The National . [2]
The company was established in 1975 and has an estimated annual turnover of more than US$1 billion, according to Malaysia-China Business Council. [3]
The company is involved in various business activities through its subsidiaries such as forestry, oil palm, media, ICT and hospitality. [4]
Jaya Tiasa Holdings started as a downstream wood processing company at Tanjong Ensurai, Sibu, Sarawak in 1983. Jaya Tiasa had five wood processing mills as of 1994. In 2002, the company diversified into the oil palm business and opened the first crude palm oil mill in 2009. [5]
Listed on Bursa Malaysia, the company had a market capitalisation of RM 2.5 billion in 2014. [5]
Subur Tiasa Holdings Berhad was founded in 1988 by Tiong Hiew King with an initial paid-up capital of RM 125.7 million. The company initially went on to manufacture plywood and veneer, followed by sawn timber and laminated board manufacturing. [6]
In January 1997, a subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau named Woodsville Private Limited bought a Singaporean company named Tri-M Technologies that provides electronics contract manufacturing services. Woodsville is in turn owned by Surreyville Pte Ltd, an investment holding company under RH group. In 2009, Surreyville and Sharptone Investments owned 50.56% and 28.03% of Tri-M. Tri-M was renamed to Petrogas in the same year. [7]
Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Limited was established in 1988. [8]
It is the dominant player in the logging sector in Equatorial Guinea by the subsidiary Shimmer International. [9] Rimbunan Hijau was in 1999 also logging contractor for Teodorin Obiang, the agriculture and forests minister of Equatorial Guinea and the son of the president. [10]
Rimbunan Hijau Far East Company Limited was set up in 1997 in Russia, involving in timber harvesting and processing. Majority of the timber are exported to China, Japan and South Korea. [11]
Rimbunan Hijau has been heavily criticized by environmental and humanitarian organizations for alleged human rights abuses, ignoring indigenous peoples Human rights, political corruption and negligence of the environment. A recent World Bank report estimates that up to 70 percent of logging in Papua New Guinea is illegal, further adding to the criticism. [12]
Two groups that have made investigations and held protests against the company are Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network. Rimbunan Hijau in turn has threatened to sue Greenpeace for defamation because of its report "The Untouchables - Rimbunan Hijau’s World of Forest Crime and Political Patronage" [3] demanding that the group withdraw the paper. Greenpeace has declined to comply. [13]
Citibank, following a review of its own environmental policies in 2005, declared that it would require the client Rimbunan Hijau to obtain credible, independent, third party certification for its Papua New Guinea operations in the future. [14]
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia. It shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and its other close neighbors are Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into being in January 1973 and having its antecedents in the Pacific Islands Regiment. The PNGDF is a small force, numbering around 3,600 personnel, and consists of a Land Element, an Air Element and a Maritime Element. It is a joint force tasked with defending Papua New Guinea and its territories against external attack, as well as having secondary functions including national-building and internal security tasks.
The economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is largely underdeveloped with the vast majority of the population living below the poverty line. However, according to the Asian Development Bank its GDP is expected to grow 3.4% in 2022 and 4.6% in 2023. It is dominated by the agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector and the minerals and energy extraction sector. The agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector accounts for most of the labour force of PNG while the minerals and energy extraction sector, including gold, copper, oil and natural gas is responsible for most of the export earnings.
Lorentz National Park is an Indonesian national park located in the provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua and South Papua, in the southwest of western New Guinea. With an area of 25,056 km2 (9,674 mi2), it is the largest national park in Southeast Asia. In 1999 Lorentz was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Malayan Banking Berhad is a Malaysian universal bank, with key operating "home markets" of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. According to the 2020 Brand Finance report, Maybank is Malaysia's most valuable bank brand, the fourth-top brand amongst the ASEAN countries and ranked 70th among the world’s most valuable bank brands.
Tan Sri Datuk Tiong Hiew KingPSM PGBK is the Malaysian Chinese founder and chairman of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, a timber company founded in 1975. Its overseas timber operations in Papua New Guinea is the largest in that country. He also has interests in logging operations in Russia.
Air Niugini Limited is the flag carrier of Papua New Guinea, based in Air Niugini House on the site of Port Moresby International Airport, Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby to 12 major airports while its subsidiary company, Link PNG, operates routes to minor airports. It also operates international services in Asia, Oceania, and Australia on a weekly basis. Its main base is Port Moresby International Airport, which is located in 7 Mile, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Niugini is the Tok Pisin word for New Guinea.
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua.
Vanimo is the capital of Sandaun Province in north-westernmost Papua New Guinea and of Vanimo-Green River District. It is located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia, nearest to Jayapura, the capital city of Papua (province).
Sir Michael Thomas Somare was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation", he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the longest-serving prime minister, having been in office for 17 years over three separate terms: from 1975 to 1980; from 1982 to 1985; and from 2002 to 2011. His political career spanned from 1968 until his retirement in 2017. Besides serving as PM, he was minister of foreign affairs, leader of the opposition and governor of East Sepik Province.
The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation near Porgera, Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Located at the head of the Porgera Valley, The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.
The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya, Indonesia, 16,024 ft (4,884 m), the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home to many intermountain river valleys, many of which support thriving agricultural communities. The highlands run generally east-west the length of the island, which is divided politically between Indonesia in the west and Papua New Guinea in the east.
John Dademo Waiko is a Papua New Guinean historian, anthropologist, playwright and politician.
The National is a weekday English language newspaper published in Papua New Guinea. It is also published online. The paper is owned by Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau.
Deforestation in Papua New Guinea has been extensive and in recent decades from 2001 to 2020, Papua New Guinea (PNG) lost 1.57Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 3.7% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 1.15Gt of CO₂e emissions.
Capital punishment is no longer a legal punishment in the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
On 13 October 2011, Airlines PNG Flight 1600, a Dash 8 regional aircraft on a domestic flight from Lae to Madang, Papua New Guinea, crash-landed in a forested area near the mouth of the Guabe River, after losing all engine power. Only four of the 32 people on board survived. It was the deadliest plane crash in the history of Papua New Guinea.
The Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGFA) was established in 1993 under the Forestry Act, 1991. It replaced the former Department of Forest and unified all the Provincial Forest Divisions and the Forest Industries Council. This restructuring was the result of the 1989 Barnett Commission of Inquiry into forestry in Papua New Guinea.
Corruption is rife in Papua New Guinea (PNG). According to The Economist, "PNG's governments are notorious for corruption, and ever run the risk of turning the state into a fully-fledged kleptocracy".
Semo Kamea is a Papua New Guinean cricketer. In March 2022, he was named in Papua New Guinea's One Day International (ODI) squads for both the 2022 United Arab Emirates Tri-Nation Series and 2022 Papua New Guinea Tri-Nation Series, as well as their ODI and Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for the tour of Nepal.