MALAYSIA'S GGF TO REVEAL PLANS TO GENERATE REVENUE BY YEAR-END

By D. Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, Nov 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's GGF Group, which was criticised by
Thai rice exporters after it was appointed an authorised representative to sell
rice overseas, said it would reveal by year-end its plans that would bring in
billions of US dollars in revenue.

Its managing director, Ronald Heng, said the Thais could look forward to a
big and positive announcement on the plans.

He said the GGF Group, a Malaysia-Thai joint venture company, was invited to
participate, along with several other major Thai corporations, in the public
tender for the rice silo project.

"GGF (Thailand), which is just as much a Thai company as the others, was
selected because our offer gives the best benefits to the Thais," he said in a
response to an article in the Thansettakij Business weekly newspaper.

In the response, made available to Bernama, Heng said the company would
construct and professionally operate the silos, as well as helping the Public
Warehouse Organisation (PWO) expand the market for Thai rice internationally.

Last September, GGF Group secured a US$200 million (US$1=RM3.35) contract to
build, own and operate 400 high-technology silos in 10 provinces, with the
capacity to store two million metric tonnes of rice.

The deal was criticised by the Thai Rice Exporters Association as the
company was also appointed by the Commerce Ministry as the authorised
representative to sell up to two million tonnes of rice yearly from the
warehouse.

PWO chairman, Viwat Lauhapoonrungsi, told the weekly newspaper that GGF was
selected as it had offered the lowest tender.

"The idea to build the silos was based on recommendations made by the Khon
Kaen University which we had hired to undertake a study on rice storage," he
said.

Viwat said the PWO has also been hauled up by Parliament's Standing
Committee on Trading and Intellectual Property to explain the contract given to
GGF following claims that it violated Article 84 of the Constitution that barred
government agencies from doing business that competed with private sector.

On resistance of local rice traders, Heng said the real question was why.

"It is only natural that those with the most to gain from 'status quo' will
resist the most to positive change. Status quo is not helping the poor farmers
for their paddy prices seem to be unfairly low," he said.

Heng said he would take legal action against Thai Rice Exporters Association
and others for making false allegations against GGF.

During an interview in September, Heng had said that GGF, with vast
experience in marketing products such as palm olein and gold worldwide, had
secured contracts worth US$150 million, including supplying 300,000 tonnes of
rice to Guinea.

He said next year, the company would negotiate to export two million tonnes
of rice to several countries in Africa, adding that contracts had also been
signed with oil-rich Nigeria.

Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, sold 9.56 million tonnes in
2007 and 10.01 million tonnes last year.

In the first six months of 2009, Thailand sold 4.72 million tonnes of rice
to overseas buyers, with about 31.4 million tonnes of padi expected for sale
from farmers this year.
-- BERNAMA