Papua New Guinea's government has lifted a 1993 ban on round-log exports from an agro-forestry project in Central Province.
The Post Courier reports that the Forest Minister, Patrick Pruaitch, told Central Governor Alphonse Moroi in Parliament that he had issued instructions for a timber permit to be given to the provincial government to enable it to export round-logs.
Mr Pruaitch says he knows there were some small difficulties initially triggered by this 1993 decision, where the then government took a decision to ban all log export in a 100 kilometre radius in a location.
He says legal advice sought on where a policy decision of a government contravenes the law, the law prevails.
Mr Pruaitch says it's only a matter of time before the export of those logs that have been piling up, begins.
The Baina agro-forestry project in Central Province is owned 70 percent by the provincial government and 30 percent by a Malaysian investor.
