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Myanmar
This Week in AsiaEconomics

Hong Kong firms face question of ethics with Myanmar investments

  • Before the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi, Hong Kong companies had committed US$1.3 billion to the country in a stretch of just seven months
  • Hong Kong firms have been linked to two conglomerates used by the junta. Post-coup, only some of those firms have had a rethink

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Anti-coup school teachers in their uniform and traditional hats at a protest in Mandalay, Myanmar. Photo: AP
John Power
Last June, when the Hong Kong Trade Development Council spotlighted business opportunities in Myanmar in an article on its website, there was no shortage of Hong Kong businesses on hand to express their bullish sentiment.

Hong Kong had recently emerged as the Southeast Asian country’s largest source of foreign investment, with businesses committing US$1.3 billion in the first seven months of the financial year 2019/20. In a survey by the Myanmar Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, 77 per cent of respondents said they planned to maintain their presence in Myanmar over the next year, despite the challenges of Covid-19. Over one-fifth of the respondents, which included more than half of the representatives of the chamber’s 64 member companies, said they hoped to expand.

Only a few months later, firms in Hong Kong and elsewhere are facing much thornier, ethical questions than the scope for expansion.

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The Myanmar junta that seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 has launched increasingly violent crackdowns on anti-coup protesters, fuelling calls for governments and businesses worldwide to sanction military leaders and cut ties with military-backed commercial outfits.
While several Western nations have announced sanctions against military leaders and suspended aid that could indirectly be used to support the military, the United States has rolled out the most punitive actions to date, with the European Union expected to follow suit as soon as March 22. Washington has blacklisted companies and individuals linked to the junta – including entities run by the adult children of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing.

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Myanmar military accuses Aung San Suu Kyi of taking US$600,000 in bribes

Myanmar military accuses Aung San Suu Kyi of taking US$600,000 in bribes

But it has not sanctioned Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), conglomerates used by the military to control vast swathes of the country’s economy.

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