Weekly Business Roundup (February 6, 2009)

By WILLIAM BOOT

40 Hydro Dams Scheduled for Burma’s Rivers

China heads a list of countries with companies engaged in building 40 hydro dams on Burma’s rivers, according to a recent survey.

The dams will provide thousands of megawatts of electricity generating capability, but most of the energy will be transported out of the country and bring limited benefit to Burmese, says Burma Rivers Network.

The network is a coalition of NGOs concerned with human rights and environmental issues associated with the dams.

The survey notes that China has 24 companies, virtually all state-owned or controlled, working on dam projects.

Thailand comes a distant second with three firms engaged in dam work.

The report also identifies companies from seven other countries, plus the Asian Development Bank.

“The dams are causing displacement, militarization, human rights abuses, and irreversible environmental damage, threatening the livelihoods and food security of millions,” says a statement by the network on its new Internet Web site (www.burmariversnetwork.org).

“The power and revenues generated are going to the military regime and neighboring countries,” according to the statement.

The survey pinpoints the location of 40 dam projects and is the most comprehensive yet undertaken of commercial efforts to harness Burma’s rivers.


Thailand-Burma Gas Deal Nearly Complete

Thailand’s state-owned oil and gas explorer PTTEP is finalizing the terms of an agreement with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise to tap and transport gas from a big new field in the Gulf of Martaban.

PTTEP says it hopes to eventually pump 300 million cubic feet per day from the M9 project—and 80 percent of it will be piped to Thailand.

The Bangkok-based operator has already indicated that the M9 site holds at least 1.76 trillion cubic feet and will require at least US $1 billion investment to be fully exploited.


Cambodia Elite ‘Pillaging’ Oil Wealth

A London-based human rights group, Global Witness, published a report on Thursday accusing Cambodia’s political leaders of enriching themselves by selling off that country’s potential oil wealth overseas.

The Global Witness “Country for Sale” report claims that the “same political elite that pillaged [Cambodia’s] timber resources has now gained control of its mineral and petroleum wealth.”

The report says rights to oil and gas resources are being sold off secretly to foreign companies.

“The Cambodian government does not have a process for allocating resources outside of patronage,” said Global Witness Campaigns Director, Gavin Hayman.

“Unless this is changed, there is a real risk that the opportunity to lift a whole generation out of poverty will be squandered,” he said.

Large volumes of oil are estimated to lie beneath the sea of Cambodian waters in the Gulf of Thailand.

Global Witness contends that, unlike Burma, Western governments and institutions—including the United States and the World Bank—have pumped billions of dollars of aid money into Cambodia to try to raise it out of “beggar status”—while ignoring what it terms a looming corruption disaster.


Top-Level Indian Delegation Targets More Deals

Business deals lie at the heart of a four-day official visit to Burma now under way by India’s Vice President Hamid Ansari.

Several agreements are expected to be signed by Ansari relating to energy, transport and telecommunications, according to India media, but perhaps the most significant will be a truck assembly factory.

The Indian vice president is leading a “strong business delegation” said The Financial Express, including executives of the National Hydro Power Corporation, Tata Motors and oil and gas developers onGC Videsh, GAIL, and Essar.

The two countries are expected to sign an MoU for Tata Motors to establish a truck manufacturing factory and also to create an industrial training center in Burma.

The vehicle plant is being backed by a US $20 million credit payment by India, says Zee News.

Yet another planned agreement is for an English-language teaching center to “equip students, civil servants, businessmen and professionals with language skills,” according to Zee.

India’s defense minister V. Pallam Raju is also reportedly in the Ansari delegation.

The vice president is scheduled to have talks with Burma’s Gen. Maung Aye and also to meet with junta leader Than Shwe.


$500,000 Cyclone ‘Gift’ Raises Questions in Nigeria

In the wake of UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s latest visit to Burma, a human rights group in his home country of Nigeria is asking questions about a “gift” of US $500,000 given to the Burmese regime by the Nigerian government.

The money, in the form of a check and supposedly for post Cyclone Nargis assistance, was handed directly to Burma’s UN ambassador by the Nigerian ambassador at the end of December, the New York-based transparency campaign group Inner City Press reported.

Instead of channeling the donation along with other UN-collected funds to aid post cyclone survivors, “Nigeria's Permanent Representative Joy Ogwu handed her counterpart from Myanmar, Kyaw Tint Shwe, a check for $500,000 with no strings attached,” said ICP.

Nigeria’s Human Rights Writers’ Association has since called for an inquiry of what it says was a breach of Nigeria’s constitution.

Ambassador Ogwu is on record at the UN of declaring Nigeria's “unflinching support for the government” of Burma.

ICP says it believes the unusually channeled donation is linked to warming relations between the two countries’ governments.