The government is expected to approve requests by provinces that seek to export more veneer following the earlier announcement by the government to cease further approvals of more export quotas, the government spokesman said last week.
Dr Chaleun Yiapaoher told local media at a press conference held at the Prime Minister’s Office that export approval is set to be granted to those veneer proved to have been produced from legally-sourced wooden materials.
Some provinces including LuangNamtha and Xayaboury have requested for permission to export a combined total of more than 200 cubic metres of veneer manufactured in the provinces.
Earlier, the government approved requests by the six provinces of Saravan, Borikhamxay, Khammuan, Savannakhet, Champassak and Attapeu to export more than 12,456 cubic metres of veneer.
At that time, the government announced it would cease further approvals for veneer exports and prohibited businesses from further manufacturing the products.
This came after the government launched serious action to implement the Prime Ministerial Order issued in May that bans the export of unfinished wooden products and regulates wood processing plants.
Dr Chaleun explained the likely-additional approval by saying that the provinces who made later requests did not catch the time when the government considered and granted the earlier approvals. Therefore the provinces submitted the requests later.
If the veneers are inspected and proved to have originated from legal sources, they will be granted export permits. This will be the last approval, he told the press conference.
It is just more than 200 cubic metres, it is not a big deal.
The government has explained that permission to export veneers that have been already been produced by saying that the veneers would easily deteriorate if left unprocessed into finished products. On the other hand, local businesses are unable to produce them into finished products.
At the press conference last week, the spokesman also disclosed a new list of wooden products including unfinished wooden products permitted for export.
These included plantation timbers with trunks measured at 12 centimetres or less, compressed sawdust, plywood, white charcoal, internal floor wood, wooden handicraft products, wooden furniture, and agar woods that are chopped into small pieces amongst other timber products.
Source: Vientiane Times
