Building Investment (Sep - Oct 2016)

News & Events
MTIB soft launch of World Bamboo Day 2016
Viability of commercial plantation and international trade reiterated.
SPONSORED BY the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB),
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Forest Research Institute
Malaysia (FRIM), Furniture Industry Technology Centre (FITEC) and
the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC),
the agenda for World Bamboo Day (WBD) 2016 (Malaysia) included:
• book launch of “Penanaman Buluh Komersial di Malaysia”
(Commercial Bamboo Plantation in Malaysia) by Dr Azmy
Mohamed of UPM, in collaboration with MTIB, an in-depth and
definitive reference on the cultivation, harvesting, treatment and
preservation of bamboo as well as plantation management;
• the inaugural ASEAN Bamboo Symposium themed
“Sustainability and Advancement in Bamboo Utilization”,
featuring a composite of 30 eminent local and international
experts, researchers, decision-makers and entrepreneurs from
the Netherlands, Canada, China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the
Philippines and Malaysia;
• an exhibition, open to the public, of ranging bamboo products,
research information and literature.
Officiating at the soft launch of WBD, Director-General of
MTIB, Dato’ Dr Jalaluddin Harun, lamented that exports of bamboo
products, for the past decade, amounted to a mere RM350,000 per
annum, ‘insignificant’ in comparison with that of timber and timber
products (RM22.14 billion in 2015). It is an anomaly, he contended,
that Malaysia should import bamboo products to the tune of RM1.5
to RM 2.0 million (principally, round bamboo from Indonesia and
laminated panels from China mainly used for flooring) whereas
bamboo grows naturally here at home. Assuming mid-level growth,
the value of global trade in bamboo products estimated to be worth
USD17.0 billion by 2017, indicative, if not, evident, of a sizable
consumer market out there that Malaysia can aspire to tap into.
Aside from increasing awareness and encouraging commercial
plantation of bamboo, World Bamboo Day 2016 is serving notice
that a radical transformation of the Malaysian bamboo industry, both
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Tuan Haji Kamaruzaman Othman (Director of Forest Plantation Division
MTIB), Mr Nasarudin Mat Ibrahim (FITEC), YBhg Datu Hj Sarudu Hj
Hoklai (General Manager STIDC), Dr Azmy Mohamed (UPM - Author of
the Book), YBhg Dato’ Dr Jalaluddin Harun (Director General of MTIB),
and YBhg Dato’ Dr Abdul Latif Mohmod (Director General FRIM).
upstream and down the supply chain, is, therefore, very much in order.
The industry has to look to large-scale commercial cultivation instead
of the forests as sustainable source of raw material. Given its proven
versatility and intrinsic properties (higher compressive strength
than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel),
the call is for the industry to look away from the traditional uses of
bamboo, such as baskets and chopsticks, to furniture, laminated
boards, footbridges and as construction and architectural materials,
e.g., flooring, skirting, frames and doors.
Under the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities
(MPIC) Forest Plantations Programme, bamboo has been earmarked
as one of the nine selected species for development. ■
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