By EDDIE OSIFELO
MALAYSIAN logging company, Excellent Resources Management plans to establish an Oxygen gas factory in Ranadi, East Honiara.
This will include two buildings to accommodate oxygen and acetylene processing factories.
Michael Lam confirmed this in an email attached with the investment proposal, sent to Foreign Investment Division 3rd March this year.
Lam said he is planning to set up a factory to produce industrial use oxygen gas and also for hospital use oxygen and nitrogen gas.
He said at present all the gases are mostly imported from overseas.
Lam said Tong’s Corporation is producing a low purity of industrial use oxygen because the plant machinery is very old.
“I believe the machinery is about 30 years old,” he said.
However, the company cannot establish both factories because it needs access road.
The only option is to secure the land parcel No. 192-010-033 in front of their premise.
Commissioner of Lands holds the Perpetual Estate over the land while Honiara City Council holds the Fixed Term Estate.
However, the Planning Office in the Council found the land is under-developed for many years and only used by the bio security division in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as garbage incinerator to dispose plants and animal products.
Excellent Resources Management Ltd wants to acquire the HCC land in order to establish the factory because the distance in between the two factories have to be at 50 meters apart.
Therefore, the company applied to Honiara City Council to acquire the Fixed Term Estate title of the parcel number of land in 2014.
HCC agreed and offered the 50 years FTE to the company and Conditions of the Grant Instrument.
According to Senior Physical Planner of HCC, Alphonsus Osifo’oa, after an investigation on the proposed site, they found the land had all been left un-developed for such a long period of time, thus such parcel of land qualifies to be allocated directly to the applicant (Excellent).
Osifo’oa said the introduction of new business undertaking in bottling factory will assist other registered businesses in the country to buy their bottles locally – an economic spin-off for the country at large.
He said besides the company would also provide employment opportunities to the many un-employed local Solomon Islanders.
Commissioner of Land Allan McNeil granted the consent for the transfer of the FTE from HCC to Excellent Resources Management Ltd after he received the resolution of the HCC, payment of $330 for processing consent for transfer of FTE over Parcel No 192-010-033 and received a recent (6 months) copy of the FTE register.
However, following an outcry from Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to retain the land for its bio-security division, McNeil issued a Notice of Resumption on 16th March this year.
The Commissioner said the resumption of the land is for public purpose and bio security quarantine incinerator.
The Excellent Resources Management Ltd legal counsel, Gabriel Suri has written to the Land Board to review the decision of the COL because of the need to establish an oxygen gas factory in the country.
