29/12/05 (The Star)  - About 400 jobs are expected to be created in Perak following plans by a public-listed company to build a RM260mil oil palm pulp and paper mill in Sitiawan next year. 

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali said the company had acquired a 27ha site in Lekir to set up the factory. 

He said the Kuala Lumpur-based company was awaiting the environmental impact assessment report before proceeding with the venture. 

The state government would provide the company with incentives, he said. 

“We will also speed up the approval to enable the project to kick off by next month,” he told reporters in Ipoh recently. 

Tajol Rosli said the millwould produce paper for packaging purposes. 

The paper would be exported mostly to the European markets, he said. 

The mill would source out by-products from the oil palm plantations and 40 palm oil mills in Perak to help produce the paper, he said. 

He said that the company was also keen in producing biofuel and palm coal, derived from palm kernel.