Banks Urged to Divest From Ratanakkiri-Based Rubber Firm
Environmental campaign group Global Witness on Thursday called on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Deutsche Bank to divest immediately from a Vietnamese firm whose rubber plantations in Cambodia are accused of rampant illegal logging and forced evictions of indigenous communities. The call came exactly six months after Global Witness released the results of a lengthy investigation into several rubber plantations here tied to Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and the state-owned Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG). In May, the campaign group recommended that Deutsche Bank and the IFC divest from both firms—which control at least a combined 180,000 hectares in Cambodia—if they did not show clear signs of addressing the allegations of illegal logging and evictions within six months. … At the time Global Witness came out with its report, in May, the IFC had nearly $15 million invested in a Vietnamese fund that owned a 5 percent stake in HAGL. At the time, the IFC said it would “take this research into consideration” as part of its ongoing monitoring. Deutsche Bank was holding a further $4.5 million worth of HAGL shares through its DWS Vietnam Fund. Denying responsibility for the firm’s plantations in Cambodia, Deutsche Bank said it was only holding the shares on behalf of other investors and that it was merely providing HAGL with “clerical trustee services.” …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/banks-urged-to-divest-from-ratanakkiri-based-rubber-firm-47045/
