ANZ sugar fallout broadens

24 January 2014
The Phnom Penh Post
Agricultural policy and administration / Banking and financial services / Child labor / Economic policy and administration / Economy and commerce / Human rights / International laws and treaties / Investment / Labor / Law and judiciary / Social development / Sugar / Trade / Trade policy and regulation
ANZ Royal Bank / Australian aid / IEM / International Environmental Management / Ly Yong Phat / Mark Zirnsak / Phnom Penh Sugar Company / Responsible Investment Association Australia / RIAA / Royal Group / Simon O’Connor / Uniting Church

Shareholders will want answers from ANZ bank after it was revealed this week that the banking giant’s joint venture in Cambodia financed ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation, the Responsible Investment Association Australia (RIAA) said yesterday. Environmental audit documents obtained by the Post on Tuesday linked ANZ Royal Bank, a joint venture with Cambodia’s Royal Group, to Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which has been at the centre of forced land evictions and child labour scandals. The documents, which contain two audits initiated by ANZ Royal and carried out by International Environmental Management (IEM), reveal that Phnom Penh Sugar has ignored 60 per cent of IEM’s recommendations on a variety of issues, including worker health and safety. …

 Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/anz-sugar-fallout-broadens