World Bank: No environmental hazard from planned Uruguay pulp mills

Finnish Foreign Trade Minister to lead trade delegation to South America

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An independent environmental report commissioned by the World Bank and released on Wednesday refutes claims that the pulp mills being built in Uruguay by the Finnish company Metsä Botnia and the Spanish company Ence would pose an environmental hazard.
      The report rejects as unfounded claims that the mills, being built in Fray Bentos on the Uruguay on the border with Argentina, would cause "catastrophic" environmental damage.
      However, the report also criticises shortcomings by the companies in giving out information.
      According to the report, the companies have not managed to show through their dissemination of information, that they really are using the best technology available in the planning and future activities of the pulp mills.
     
The study, conducted by independent Canadian environmental experts, is being used as a basis for World Bank decisions on credits, with which the projects are to be financed.
      Uruguay said that it was satisfied with the conclusions drawn by the bank. Argentina, which opposes the mills, questioned the report's validity.
     
Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Paula Lehtomäki (Centre) said on Wednesday that it would be a positive surprise if Argentina and Uruguay would solve their dispute over the pulp mill during her upcoming visit to South America.
      Lehtomäki will head a visit to South America by a delegation of Finnish business figures.
      She said that she expects that the pulp mill dispute will be a major topic, and emphasised that the Finnish state is not a party to the dispute.
      However, she added that Finland is interested, because it involves a large Finnish investment.
     
Responding to demands from Argentina that Metsä-Botnia should do more to defuse the crisis, the company's CEO Erkki Varis indicated that Botnia had done "enough gesturing".
      The company plans to resume construction of its plant on Tuesday next week, after a ten-day suspension so that the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay might seek a solution to the crisis. The moratorium was offered as a good-will gesture from the Finns.
      The meeting did not take place because Argentina had demanded a 90-day halt to the construction.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Pulp mill dispute between Argentina and Uruguay intensifies (12.4.2006)
  Pulp mill protesters dismantle one roadblock on Argentina´s border with Uruguay (22.3.2006)
  Uruguay government asks Botnia for "gesture" on controversial pulp mill issue (16.3.2006)

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