12/04/2002 (The Star) - KULIM (M) Bhd will be investing RM22mil over thenext three years to install total waste management systems at its palm oilmills in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.Its managing director Ahamad Mohamad said that to date, only one of thecompany's palm oil mills in Johor had adopted the total waste managementtechnology.'We have 11 palm oil mills - seven in Malaysia and four in Papua NewGuinea - and will gradually install the system over the next three yearsat all our mills," he said.Ahamad said this at a press conference after the signing between Kulim andAsiaGreen environmental Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.To date, the company has oil palm operations in Malaysia, Papua New Guineaand Indonesia, with total planted area of 70,000ha. The signing was inconjunction with Kulim acquiring a 30% shareholding in AsiaGreen.The other shareholders of AsiaGreen are Bertam Holdings Plc 30% and otherindividual shareholders 40%Set up in 1997, AsiaGreen is a 'green' technology provider of total wastemanagement solutions.AsiaGreen managing director Steven Chong said the system that Kulim wouldbe adopting used bio-technology that enabled oil palm waste to beconverted into nutrient-rich organic fertilisers.'The system saves production costs and enables valuable organic compost tobe recycled back into the oil palm estates as well as improve soilproperties. It promotes better growth of oil palm and hence good potentialfor higher yield. Oil palm millers using the system can also expect areturn on investment of less than three years," Chong said.According to Chong, AsiaGreen will also be expanding its waste managementbusiness overseas.The company now has a compost plant in Papua New Guinea and is negotiatingto set up composting plants in Indonesia, Myanmar and China.He said the scope of the system's usage and its technology was huge inview of the fact that palm oil generated about RM15bil in foreign exchangefor Malaysia annually.