Korean Firm Investing $210 million

August 22, 2007 by Ron Mahabir

A South Korean company is expected to invest about 210 million U.S.
dollars in the Philippines for the development of jatropha, a source
of raw material for making bio-diesel, a local daily newspaper
reported on Wednesday.

The 210-million-dollar investment from Korea Technology Industry Co.
Ltd. (KTI) will come in the next two years, based on a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) it signed on Tuesday with PNOC- Alternative Fuels
Corp., a subsidiary of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC),
the Philippine Star reported.

The MOU would allow the two firms to form a joint venture to undertake
the jatropha development, according to the report.KTI will
specifically invest 150 million U.S. dollar for 75,000 hectares of
jatropha plantation within two years in the tropical Philippines.
Sixty million dollars will be used for the establishment of a 300-ton
capacity biorefinery by 2009, the report said.

The state-owned Philippine firm would be in charge of earmarking the
land for commercial plantation and development of jatropha, it added.
The PNOC-AFC is established by the Philippine government to develop
biofuels and other alternative energy systems that would reduce the
country's heavy dependency on traditional oil and gas.Currently the
oil from Jatropha curcas seeds is used for making bio-diesel fuel in
Philippines. The country has passed a law on promotion of using
bio-fuel.

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Posted By Webmaster to Jatropha News Around the Globe at 8/10/2008 09:05:00 AM

Malaysian Rubber Board takes charge of Jatropha plantation

7 May 2008
By Ooi Tee Ching

THE Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) has been put in charge of jatropha
plantations, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk
Peter Chin said.

This means MRB will develop high yielding jatropha clones and regulate
large-scale jatropha plantations on marginal land.

This way, jatropha plantations will not compete for agriculture land
meant for food production, Chin said, adding that the land will be
located far away from fertile agriculture land meant for food crops.

"MRB will research and develop jatropha clones that will yield high
oil content," he told Business Times after officiating the soft launch
of the International Rubber Conference (IRC) & Exhibition 2008 in
Kuala Lumpur on Monday night.

The IRC series is a calendar event among rubber experts worldwide. MRB
will host the IRC 2008 and more than a thousand delegates are expected
to attend the conference in Kuala Lumpur from October 20 to 23.

MRB director general Datuk Kamarul Baharain Basir explained that the
government plans for jatropha on a commercial scale and the oil
extracted will be used as biodiesel feedstock.

"In future, jatropha can be planted mono-crop or interspersed with
rubber trees. Jatropha doesn't need that much water, its genetic
make-up is similar to that of the rubber tree," Kamarul Baharain said.

With an initial allocation of RM2 million, MRB had already planted 2ha
with various jatropha strains sourced from Thailand, Myanmar, India,
China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"By mid-2009, we hope to expand the seedfield spread of variants to
38ha," he added.

Source: Business Times Online