5/22/2002 (Soyatech) - Boustead Holdings Bhd plans to sell the plantationinformation management system (PIMS) it has developed with ComputerSystems Advisers (M) Bhd (CSA) in South-East Asia by next year.According to Boustead manufacturing and corporate planning director KooHock Fee, both companies have started marketing the PIMS in severalforeign markets.He said that the system helped plantation companies to achieve betterreturns on investment, increase productivity and enabled fastertime-to-market."There is huge potential for PIMS in countries such as Thailand, thePhilippines, Burma and Papua New Guinea. However, we plan to focus onMalaysia and Indonesia this year, Koo said."Probably, next year, we will start to seriously look at the other exportmarkets," he said.Koo told a press conference this after a seminar on Smart Links toPlantation Management in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The seminar was followedby the launch of PIMS.According to CSA managing director Chuah Tai Eu, the PIMS was developedbased on the combined plantation management systems already own by CSA andBousteadís wholly-owned subsi-diary Boustead Information Technology SdnBhd."The PIMS combines the software development expertise of CSA with theplantation industry expertise of Boustead," he said.Chuah said that CSAís older system, the plantation management informationsystem (PMIS), was launched in 1985.He said that Boustead introduced its plantation management system (PMS),which was now being used by 100 of its estates, about 20 years ago.Chuah said that CSA and Boustead had each contributed about RM1mil tointegrate the 2 systems into the PIMS."So far, we have installed and successfully tested PIMS at 2 estates, with13 more estates in the process of installation," he said."With improving crude palm oil prices and anticipated higher overseasdemand, plantation companies can expect an encouraging but challengingyear ahead. This is the most opportune time for us to introduce a new andenhanced system that catalyses the forward momentum of the plantationindustry," Chuah said.Koo said Boustead planned to install PIMS, which was developed on thelatest Microsoft technology, at its 400 estates in Malaysia and Indonesiasoon. Chuah said CSA's older system PMIS had been installed at about 50estates nationwide."We expect all these estates to upgrade to the PIMS," he said.

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