Weekly Business Roundup (September 12, 2009)

Chevron and Total Respond to Charges of Funding Burmese Regime
 
One of the two giant oil companies exposed this week for helping to finance the Burmese military regime says on its corporate Web site that it supports human rights in what it terms “The Chevron Way.”

Multibillion dollar energy conglomerate Chevron claimed this week to operate in foreign countries according to “a statement of values that guide our actions.” Chevron claims that these values include integrity, trust, partnership, diversity and protecting people and the environment.

Total of France, the other oil company named in a report by EarthRights International, has given a much more blunt rejection of allegations that it helps to support the junta with payments for gas it produces in the Yadana offshore field and sells on to Thailand.

“They can go to hell,” Total’s CEO Christophe de Margerie said of critics of its business activities in Burma.

In an interview in the US magazine Newsweek last month, de Margerie said he was “proud” of Total’s contribution to easing pollution in Bangkok by supplying Burmese gas to Thailand.

He asked why Total was singled out for criticism: “Ask the government of Thailand, which buys Burmese gas. Or ask the government of India why they have companies investing in Burma. Why is South Korea, ally of the United States of America, investing in Burma?”

Chevron, which successfully fought off a bid earlier this year by US trade unions to force it out of Burma, insists on its Web site that it recognizes what it terms the “relevant details” of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles.
 
Bank Accused of Hiding Junta Gas Cash is Partly Owned by Singapore Govt
 
DBS Bank, one the two banks named as secretly holding US $4.8 billion in gas revenues siphoned off by the Burmese military junta from the national budget, is partly owned by the Singaporean government.

A total of 28 percent of the stock of the DBS Bank is held by Temasek Holdings and a subsidiary of Temasek called Maju. Temasek is owned by Singapore’s Ministry of Finance.

DBS—the largest bank in southeast Asia in terms of assets—and the smaller Singaporean bank OCBC were identified this week as holding up to $4.83 billion in monies siphoned off of national income assets from selling gas to Thailand via oil firms Chevron and Total.

The gas is produced by the Yadana offshore field in the Andaman Sea.

“The military elite are hiding billions of dollars of the people’s revenue in Singapore while the country needlessly suffers under the lowest social spending in Asia,” said Matthew Smith of the US-based human rights group EarthRights International, which recently authored two reports on the junta’s misappropriation of Burma’s national budget.

The largest declared shareholder of the OCBC—or Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation—is held by the Lee Foundation, a philanthropic charity known for its support of education. Another sizeable shareholder is the mysterious Selat Limited, about which little is known other than that it is linked with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Both banks are also named by other rights groups in “dirty lists” of companies doing business with the junta.
 
Burma Works with Japan’s Jetro to Improve Garment Export Quality
 
Burma’s Garment Manufacturers’ Association says it is working with the Japanese government’s overseas trade organization Jetro to improve production quality with the aim of increasing exports to Japan.

The cooperation follows trade pacts between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Japan, India and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Clothing exports from Burma to Japan rose to a value of $113 million in 2008, according to the Burmese association.

Asean says that as part of its economic integration, it plans to introduce more coordinated export planning among the 10 member countries’ garment industries.

Asean estimates that the industry employs up to 6 million people among the 10 countries, although exports and employment have been badly affected over the past year by the global economic slump.
 
Dhaka Lodges Diplomatic Protest with UN over Gas-rich Offshore Waters
 
Bangladesh says it has lodged a formal protest to the United Nations over Burma’s Bay of Bengal territorial claims. The protest in the form of a diplomatic note follows the award of exploration licenses in the bay by Bangladesh to two foreign oil firms, US-based ConocoPhillips and Ireland’s Tullow Oil.