Weekly Business Roundup (March 13, 2009)

By WILLIAM BOOT

Japan Helps Upgrade Rangoon Buses in Asean Deal

Japan will pick up much of the bill for improving public transport in Rangoon where hundreds of old buses dating from before World War II are reportedly to be scrapped and replaced.

The multimillion dollar aid is to come from The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is an adviser to Rangoon city authorities on transport logistics improvements.

The aid is part of a cooperation program with Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to help the 10-country group’s poorest member, reports the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Japan is seeking to increase trade with the Asean group, which is in the process of creating free trade agreements with Japan rivals China, India and the European Union.

With the JICA aid, Rangoon has begun pulling more than 300 WWII-era buses off the streets as part of efforts to improve transportation and reduce air pollution in the city.


Key Lloyd’s Insurer Cancels Burma Business

A key member of Lloyd’s insurance network of London says it is canceling its business in Burma.

The withdrawal comes after a prolonged campaign against Lloyd’s by the human rights group Burma Campaign UK.

QBE Insurance of Australia says it has canceled all business globally which has a “direct or indirect benefit for the current ruling party in Burma.”

Lloyd’s has refused to disclose how many members have business links still in Burma, but it is widely believed to provide insurance through interlinking companies to businesses associated with the junta or directly controlled by it.

Burma-owned shipping firms and airlines, for example, cannot operate without insurance.

Although QBE says it had only marginal business in Burma, it describes itself on its company Web site as the “largest managing agent operating within the Lloyd's insurance market.”

Campaign UK chief spokesman Johnny Chatterton told The Irrawaddy:
“Foreign insurers provide a financial lifeline to Burma’s brutal regime. They insure the projects that make the regime billions of dollars a year. These billions don’t help the people of Burma. They entrench military rule and fund campaigns of ethnic cleansing in eastern Burma.”

He praised the QBE decision to pull out of Burma but said other Lloyd’s-linked insurers remained.

Chatterton named firms Catlin and Atrium which, he says, “continue to help fund the Burmese regime.”

The London-based campaign group published a report last July naming 12 companies that it says provide insurance to companies in Burma.

However, Chatterton said QBE joins a growing list of insurers who have already stopped doing business in Burma. They include AIG, ALLIANZ, Aon, AXA, ING, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Willis.


EU Group Wants Tougher Sanctions against Burma

A large group of European Union parliamentarians is calling for a strengthening of economic trade sanctions against Burma.

The European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma says existing sanctions against the military regime in Burma is failing to help force democratic change and tougher action is needed.

The EU sanctions policy on Burma is coming up for review in April.

The caucus this week urged the EU to “consider carefully targeted economic sanctions, including targeted financial sanctions, and sanctions stopping European companies providing insurance in Burma.”

It also wants the EU to press for a better coordinated worldwide arms embargo against the regime.

The caucus consists of 156 members of the European parliament representing 15 of the EU’s 25 member countries.

The parliamentary group says that there should be no lessening of economic sanctions against the Burmese military government until its human rights record improves, and there are serious moves toward democratic change. It rejects the regime’s planned 2010 elections and constitution as “unacceptable in their current form.”

The group is being advised by the London-based Burma Campaign UK.