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Destructive Engagement: A Decade of Foreign Investment in Burma |
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Friday, 01 October 1999 |
Issue Paper of EarthRights International's Burma Project
Since 1988, when the Burmese military regime opened up the country to foreign investment after a generation of isolation, the country has seen no improvement on a whole range of indicators, such as education, health and poverty, that investment is supposed to help improve. Instead, investment has brought a doubling in the size of the country's army and major arms purchases that have in turn furthered the repression. Investment has also been concentrated in extractive industries, namely logging, gems and natural gas, resulting in the selling off of Burma's natural resources at alarming rates. The stream of refugees and migrants out of the country -- fleeing the human and economic devastation brought about by the regime -- is perhaps the clearest indicator that investment and business engagement with Burma are not working.
Destructive Engagement: A Decade of Foreign Investment in Burma
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Burma Project Reports |
The Burma Project released a background paper today on the increasing involvement of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) in securing Burma’s natural resources. The paper, entitled China in Burma: The Increasing Investment of Chinese Multinational Corporations in Burma’s Hydropower, Oil & Gas, and Mining Sectors, finds more than 26 Chinese MNCs involved in more than 62 projects in Burma over the past decade, and includes a preliminary list of Chinese MNCs operating in Burma. The projects, ranging from small hydropower projects to a planned dual oil and natural gas pipeline from western Burma to Yunnan Province, are indicative of the increasing presence and influence that China has in Burma. While the actions of Chinese MNCs outside China have received much attention in recent years, their activities in Burma have too often been overlooked. In fact, the environmental degradation and abuses that often come from large-scale development projects in Burma is reason to pay attention.
We encourage others, locally, regionally, and internationally, to increase dialogue regarding China’s operations in Burma, and to call upon China’s MNCs to increase transparency regarding operations in Burma, to ensure that abuses connected to their projects do not happen, and to ensure that environmental and social assessments are carried out.
Click here for the China in Burma Background Paper. (Also available in Chinese and Burmese.)
In recent months, both China and India have signed agreements with the Burmese military junta indicating their willingness to buy gas from the proposed Shwe gas project in western Burma, with Thailand also expressing interest. If built, the Shwe project would be Burma’s largest gas evelopment project ever. Matthew Smith and Naing Htoo analyze the events surrounding the recent agreements and the inevitable consequences if the project were to proceed. Read the full article here. Please also see the more detailed report about these latest developments.
This report describes how human rights and environmental abuses continue to be a serious problem in eastern Pegu division, Burma – specifically, in Shwegyin township of Nyaunglebin District. The heavy militarization of the region, the indiscriminate granting of mining and logging concessions, and the construction of the Kyauk Naga Dam have led to forced labor, land confiscation, extortion, forced relocation, and the destruction of the natural environment. The human consequences of these practices, many of which violate customary and conventional international law, have been social unrest, increased financial hardship, and great personal suffering for the victims of human rights abuses.
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