Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has remained tight-lipped about accusations from non-governmental organisations over the state-owned bank's financing of the controversial Gibe 3 dam in Ethiopia.
The US$1.75 billion hydropower project, expected to be completed by 2014, is Ethiopia's largest investment project and the world's fourth-largest dam under construction.
In July, the world's largest bank by market value extended a US$500 million loan to it, the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed bank has confirmed to NGOs.
'The Gibe 3 Dam is Africa's most destructive power project. It will ravage the fragile ecosystems of the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia and Lake Turkana in Kenya, and the 500,000 poor indigenous people who depend on them,' said Peter Bosshard, policy director of International Rivers, an international NGO focusing on dams.
'The Gibe 3 dam raises serious technical, economic and financial questions,' said a letter to ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing on May 21 last year from three NGOs - International Rivers, Friends of Lake Turkana and Bank Track.
That letter and another sent to ICBC by International Rivers in September never received any response, said Bosshard. 'We also contacted ICBC representatives several times by e-mail asking whether they could meet with us. They never responded to these messages either.'
ICBC has not responded to inquiries from the South China Morning Post either.