22/12/2011 (The Star) - DD Plantations Sdn Bhd will invest about RM100mil in its third joint-venture oil palm plantation development with native customary rights (NCR) landowners.

The latest project, covering a gross area of 8,484ha in Selipin, Bakong, Baram district in northern Sarawak, involves 356 families, mostly Ibans, from 14 longhouses. DD Plantations will hold 60% equity interest in a joint-venture company to be set up.

The landowners will have a 30% stake while the balance 10% will be held by Pelita Holdings Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of state-owned Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA).

Pelita Holdings is also the project's managing agent under a joint-venture agreement signed here yesterday.

The signatories were DD Plantations managing director Datuk Yee Ming Seng and Pelita Holdings chief executive officer Abdullah Chek Sahamat.

Sarawak state Assistant Minister for Land Development Datuk Abdul Wahab Aziz witnessed the ceremony.

Yee said the joint-venture company would develop the land in phases, with 2,000ha to be planted a year.

“The development cost is about RM12,000 per ha, and RM100mil is needed for the entire development,” he told reporters after the agreement signing ceremony.

Yee said DD Plantations and Pelita Holdings were involved in two other joint-venture oil palm plantation projects on NCR land.

The first was DD Pelita Sebungan Plantation in Sebauh, Bintulu which covers a gross area of 10,000ha and involves about 780 landowners from 25 longhouses.

Since 2004, more than 4,300ha has been planted, out of which over 90% is in production.

This plantation paid out its first interim dividend of RM1.5mil to participating landowners yesterday. The final dividend for 2011 is due in May next year.

Yee said the second joint-venture project signed in 2007 was DD Pelita Genaan Plantation, also in Sebauh, and involved the development of 13,000ha.

“About 5,000ha has been planted,” he added.

Abdullah said since 1996, 40 private investors were involved in joint ventures with some 12,500 NCR landowners in large-scale development of 52,000ha statewide.

These investors include major plantation companies from Peninsula Malaysia.

Sarawak has some 1.5 million ha NCR land,mostly idle or under-developed.