Speaking to local media on Monday, Mr Hou said the country has now depended so much on the logging sector for its revenue over the years.
“When the sector declines, our revenue and economy is affected,” he said.
He recalled that past governments’ policies on the economy in the late 1980s and early 1990s do not depend on logging.
“They have a wide spread economic base and the country don’t depend on one sector.
“But in the 1990s government policies was oriented heavily on the forest sector and overtime due to government polices forest systemically become the only economic activity which government depend on it,” he said.
He added that over the long period of time, the determined price of logs were controlled by loggers which they have controlled the price of logs and the export of logs.
“For loggers they are powerful because if they stop export, government revenue will drop,” he said.
He said a lot of people in the country depend on logging for employment and royalty.
However, a lot of money through tax had been lost to loggers.
“Loggers are the only one benefitting from these sectors,” he said.
Mr Hou said logging as a fixed timetable which will soon decline.
“Therefore the other sector must be developed such as agriculture, mining, fisheries and tourism,” he said.
Mr Hou, who is with the Heritage Park Hotel camp said any government that came into power, must work hard to broaden the economy base to improve the other sectors to earn more revenue.
By MOFFAT MAMU
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