Forestry Corporation to be run as business

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 35

Forestry Corporation to be run as business

Six main aims have been set out for the new and fully commercial Forestry Corporation that will replace the Forest Service next year. The Government has given the new corporation as its brief “to operate as a successful business enterprise." This new corporation would not include many of the non-commercial functions of the Forest Service, said the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger. A decision had yet to be made on the placement of some of those activities. The corporation will be empowered to: © Be in any part of the chain from forest-growing, harvesting, wood-processing, distribution and marketing of finished products, both domestically and internationally. ® Enter into commercial ventures in land uses associated with commercial forest

growing such as agro-fores-try, deer farming, and recreation. ® Enter into joint ventures. ® Assume full responsibility for the commercial forest and wood-processing assets of the State under an agreed capital structure. ® Work under a board of directors with freedom to make commercial decisions. • Borrow and invest money.

Mr Rodger said an interim board would be set up to oversee and report to the Government on the transition. One of its first tasks would be to examine the financial structure, appropriate status, and ways of safeguarding the status of employees of the new corporation. Decisions on the Forestry Corporation were in accord with the Government's general policy on State-owned enterprises. Staff needed to know what form of organ-

isation was being proposed. Mr Rodger said that as part of the restructuring, the Government would also set up a Department of Survey and Land Information. It would carry out the functions of the survey and mapping divisions of the Sit Department of and Survey to be responsible for the land title survey system and mapping. The new department would also co-ordinate land information services and: data bases, such as topoa hie and thematic data, boundaries, aerial photography, and accurate measurement data , for transport, navigation, and other purposes. Mr Rodger said that requirements for corporate services and other related sources for the department which would, in the main, come from the existing Department of Lands and Survey, were being assessed.