A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 6 August 2014

ANZ faces calls for compensation over Cambodian sugar plantation deal

By Georgia Wilkins, The Sydney Morning Herald

Cambodian children work on sugar plantations to earn money for their families.
Cambodian children work on sugar plantations to earn money for their families. Photo: Nicolas Axelrod
ANZ is facing calls for compensation over its controversial funding of a Cambodian sugar mill linked to child labour, forced evictions and land grabs. 
Local media reports on Monday said hundreds of Cambodian farmers had called on the bank to provide compensation for the land they lost due to the $220 million sugar development, owned by Ly Yong Phat, one of Cambodia's richest men and a senator from the country's ruling political party. 
The bank, which no longer finances the mill - run by Phnom Penh Sugar - said it was inappropriate to respond to calls given its connection with the company had ended. 
"ANZ is no longer a financier to PPS and it is no longer appropriate to have any discussions on the company's business. Any issues would need to be raised with PPS directly," a spokesman in Melbourne said. 
ANZ is understood to have met community representatives in Cambodia last week to encourage them to take up their issues directly with PPS. 
It is believed the bank had put in place an action plan to help PPS improve its performance in addressing its social and environmental obligations, but that PPS decided to pay out its loan. 
Fairfax Media revealed ANZ's connection to the controversial plantation in January after an audit revealed the project was beset with social and environmental problems. 
It highlighted the involvement of foreign firms in land grabs and developments in poor countries. 
ANZ is understood to be reviewing its joint venture in Cambodia, which is split with the Royal Group, owned by another wealthy Cambodian businessman, Kith Meng.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

banks are not created by the wealthy to help out people... banks can lend you money which they don't even have [ just write a check ] and other bank will accept it because there is an agreement among themselves to do so in order to fleece the people... then the borrower will have to pay back that principal plus interest [ the amount of the money a borrower pay back end-up being as much as twice the amount borrowed /principal + interest ]; do similar transaction to many people and you would become millionaire in a few years. also money you deposit in bank , become bank's property basically you lend it to the bank ..if they lost the business from bad investment then you are out of luck..some country requires bank to carry insurance to protect the depositors but only to certain amount; anything over you are out of luck.


you try writing checks to many people and don't even have many to cover the amounts and see what happens !