 The government launched the Upper Demerara Forestry Project in the early 1980s to improve hardwood production on a 220,000-hectare site.In 1985 the International Development Association, part of the World Bank, provided a US$9 million loan for expansion of the forestry industry.In 1990 the government sold the state-owned logging company and announced plans to allow significant South Korean and Malaysian investment in the timber industry.