KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC) will not seek legal redress pertaining to its agriculture and reforestation joint ventures (JV) with Veetar Kinabalu Plantations Sdn Bhd, following the release of its JV investigation report on the projects.
SUCCC president Datuk Seri Panglima Gan Sau Wah said the investigation committee was headed by former State Attorney-General, Datuk Stephen Foo Kiat Shin.
“SUCCC has authorized its deputy president, Lo Su Fui, to make the arrangements. After a year of investigation and looking into past records, minutes of meetings and shares, the committee has found no wrongdoing in the procedures. Under such circumstances, we have no reason to seek legal redress from Veetar Kinabalu Plantations Sdn Bhd,” he said at a press conference after chairing the SUCCC management and supervisory committee meeting here yesterday.
Gan said the report was endorsed by the management and supervisory committee members in the meeting.
Nonetheless, he said SUCCC would seek to request adjustments to be made so that the association could receive higher dividends per annum.
In 1997, SUCCC, Sabah Bumiputra Chamber of Commerce (SBCC) and Kadazandusun Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) jointly formed a joint-venture company known as Corak Nakhoda Sdn Bhd with share equity of SUCCC (40%), SBCC (30%) and KCCI (30%). This led to a joint-venture (JV) agreement on 20,000 acres of agriculture land at Ulu Tongod in Kinabatangan approved to Corak Nahkoda Sdn Bhd by the state government of Sabah.
The second JV agreement on Sustainable Forest Management Licence was approved to Anika Desiran Sdn Bhd by the state government, with share equity of SUCCC (40%), SBCC (30%) and KCCI (30%). The state government approved 250,000 acres of land for this JV.
In both JVs, the three chambers were to provide the land, while Veetar Kinabalu Plantations would provide the finance and management.
According to its share, SUCCC has 8,000 acres of land for the agriculture project and 100,000 acres of land for reafforestation.
Gan said SUCCC had received RM3.6 million in total through the JV in the past, namely, RM2 million and RM1.6 million from the reforestation and agriculture projects respectively.
SUCCC is now left with four Ordinary Shares each for the reforestation and agriculture projects, which only provides the association with RM80,000 dividend per annum.
Meanwhile, Gan said SUCCC could only receive dividend from its two million Preference Shares for the reforestation project and 1.6 million Preference Shares for the agriculture project provided both JVs were making profit.
“The dividend of RM80,000 a year is too low. We hope it can be increased so that SUCCC gets a better dividend,” he said.