Asia Plantation Capital Berhad Launches Gaharu Plantation In Batu Pahat, Johor

Batu Pahat, Johor, 10 January 2017 – Asia Plantation Capital (APC) is delighted to announce the launch of its Batu Pahat plantation. YB Datuk Wira Dr. Abu Bakar bin Mohamad Diah, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation will officiate at the launch.
The facility is considered by APC to be a showcase plantation that demonstrates and utilises the very latest techniques in planting and husbandry. The plantation boasts 24-hour security, and ultra-modern surveillance systems; not only to look out for any unwelcome visitors, but also to monitor the progress of the saplings.
In November 2016, Asia Plantation Capital received the final approval from Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) — the Companies Commission of Malaysia – for its agarwood plantations. This enables APC to market its agarwood plantation investment programme in Malaysia, thus establishing APC as a leading plantation management company in the region. This also makes APC the first company in Malaysia, to receive regulatory approval for its agarwood plantation investment programme.
SSM is a statutory body in Malaysia that regulates companies and businesses, and is the country’s leading authority for the improvement of corporate governance, and compliance with business registration and corporate legislation. As an enforcement body, SSM lays down stringent guidelines and APC complies with all of them for its Batu Pahat plantation project in Johor, Malaysia.
“For APC to have met all of SSM’s guidelines is indeed an achievement to be proud of for the company. Congratulations! We are indeed pleased that a forward-looking company such as APC is strengthening its roots in Malaysia; and while expanding its business outreach, conforms to the values of transparency and sustainability by way of regulatory compliance,” says YB Datuk Wira Dr. Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.
“We are very proud and honoured to be the first company in Malaysia to have been given official regulatory approval for our vertically integrated agarwood plantation investment,” said Steve Watts, CEO, Asia Plantation Capital Berhad, “as this is a significant milestone for us as a company. It has taken a lot of hard work from our respective teams to ensure that our business model, at all stages of the process, is transparent, ethical, and meets the standards set by the SSM and our independent consultants.”
Another recent milestone achieved by APC was in having its project on the ‘Production and Commercialisation of High-Value Agarwood-Based Products’ approved as a Bioeconomy Transformation Programme (BTP) ‘trigger project’ by the BTP Steering Committee on 21 November 2016. Managed by Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation Sdn Bhd, BTP is a platform provided by the Malaysian government for the private sector to channel and maximise commercial opportunities in bio-based industries. Through the BTP, the Malaysian government and leading industry players work in tandem to set national goals for the application of bio-based technology in agriculture production, industrial manufacturing and health. This is achieved by establishing and putting in place the infrastructure and conditions that are required to develop the relevant mechanisms, and to ensure that policy is sufficiently flexible to respond to new opportunities.
With its project approved as a BTP ‘trigger project’ by the government through the BTP Steering Committee, and its agarwood plantation investment product approved by SSM, APC in Malaysia has yet again proven itself to be a pioneer and innovator in the sustainable plantation sector.
Asia Plantation Capital, with its ground-breaking and award-winning ‘From Soil, To oil, To You’ vertically integrated business model, is now one the largest companies in the region within the agarwood plantation industry – an industry that is growing at an exponential rate in Asia. The company has its own plantations, along with those it manages for private and institutional clients, as well as its own factories now producing a myriad of end products utilising Oud oil and wood chips that are produced from its agarwood trees. Asia Plantation Capital’s proprietary inoculation and distillation systems have set new industry standards, and firmly established the company at the forefront of the sector.