BANGKOK - Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), a major plantation fiber producer with one of the world's biggest pulp and paper mills, has expanded its scope of environmental and community accountability with its second Sustainability Report (SR) to be launched at the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok on 17-19 November. This year's SR presents not just the Company's own view of its operations, but also direct comments from NGOs and other stakeholders, raising its reporting standards and affirming the Company's commitment to work with stakeholders towards sustainability.

A key difference is the inclusion of ad verbatim comments from two NGOs - WWF and Yayasan Riau Mandri. Through contact with an independent writer, their comments on cooperation with APRIL and the company's progress (or lack of) are published in this report. This SR has also included detailed feedback and criticism from NGOs in Indonesia, Europe and North America.

"We always prefer to talk directly rather than receive criticism second hand, and the value we place on such communications is demonstrated clearly in this SR. This is evident from the fact that we did not shy away from, and even included more information on hot topics like conservation in Tesso Nilo and illegal logging," said Mr. A. J. Devanesan, President of APRIL.

Moreover, the 2004 SR clearly outlines APRIL's plans to achieve sustainability by 2009 in a full roadmap, detailing its strategies, including continual research and development initiatives and plans to introduce more species diversity in plantations. APRIL also included details of its Acacia Chain-of-Custody system and the results of the follow-up independent audit to determine the effectiveness of the system.

Like the first Report, this SR broadly follows the framework of the Global Reporting Initiative and is independently verified by a third-party, Bureau Veritas, a highly respected international health & safety, environmental quality and certification organization. It also includes a strategy of continual improvement in which APRIL lists its key targets in both environmental and social performance over the next two years.

"We will continue with the ongoing process of reviewing our policies and practices to ensure that our beliefs are translated into our daily working lives, even as we expand our operations to other parts of the world," Mr. Devanesan said. "In our pursuit of sustainability, it is our promise to report our performance to our stakeholders on a biennial basis."

APRIL is also pursuing inclusion in the United Nations Global Compact by 2006. The SR is available on the APRIL company website at www.aprilasia.com.

About Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd

Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) is a major producer of pulp and paper in Asia. With its manufacturing operations at Kerinci, in Riau province, Sumatra, Indonesia, the APRIL Group employs around 20,000 people and has marketing operations around the world, selling Elemental Chlorine-free pulp and PaperOne premium quality office paper. With an installed capacity of 2 million tonnes of pulp per year, APRIL is one of the largest market pulp producers in the world. It also has a 350,000 tonne capacity paper mill in Riau.

Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL)

Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd (APRIL)

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