Published on May 13, 2005

A provincial governor from Laos yesterday dismissed a Thai investor’s accusations of bad treatment in a logging deal gone awry, saying it was merely a conflict between partners.

Sayaboury provincial governor Sombat Yialiher spoke about the dispute yesterday after Thai businessman Sithian Na Songkhla, known in Laos as “Suthi”, organised a protest in front of Government House on Tuesday and asked the premier to help protect his logging concession in Laos.

Sithian alleged the Sayaboury provincial authority confiscated his sawmill and logging concession despite a Lao Supreme Court ruling in his favour three years ago.

Sombat told reporters that Sithian had not registered any logging investment in Laos, but his partner Sa-nguan Harnpipat has held a licence to run a sawmill to process wood for the Laotian market since 1993.

Sombat, in Pattaya this week for a meeting of governors from Thai and Laotian border provinces, said the conflict broke out when Sa-nguan resisted Sithian’s attempt to take over the sawmill in 1995.

The concession was granted in Sa-nguan’s name, and he later transferred 25 per cent of his stake in the Pak Kad Sawmill Company to Sithian. The conflict erupted after Sa-nguan failed to also turn over management to Sithian.

Sithian filed suit and the court ruled in Sithian’s favour in 2002, ordering Sa-nguan to pay Bt14 million and cede the mill’s machines to Sithian, he said.

“But the court’s ruling never mentioned that he has any right to continue business operations on behalf of Sa-nguan,” Sombat said.

“We don’t want to continue such trouble-laden investments, so I told Suthi several times to form his own company and apply for a new wood-processing concession,” he said.

Sithian, who claimed he poured more than Bt100 million into the business, also accused the Sayabouri provincial authority of re-selling his logs to Thailand.

Sombat argued that the firm, no matter whom it was run by, did not have a single log when the court made its ruling, and that Sithian had no right to a logging concession.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Pattaya

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