The billionaire boss of the giant Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand
Group (CP), Dhanin Chearavanont, is on record saying he runs his
businesses on Buddhist principles. But Burmese migrant workers employed
in his seafood-processing factories in Thailand might have reason to
question those principles after their experiences at the hands of
exploitative subcontractors CP has, until now, used as go-betweens in
its dealings with non-Thai employees.
CP’s practices were thrust into the limelight this week after it
fired 160 Burmese at a factory in Mahachai on the coast just south of
Bangkok. The grounds for their dismissal were vague, as with other
firings of Burmese in the past, and may have contravened Thai labor law.
But this time the Burmese embassy in Bangkok intervened and CP has
agreed to give the workers their jobs back, and to look into the
subcontracting methods.
The treatment of Burmese workers in Thailand by CP does not bode well
for the company’s declared plans to invest US $550 million in Burma, on
large-scale rice and maize farms, milling plants and meat processing
factories.
“Myanmar’s [Burma’s] economy is growing since the government has
opened the door for foreign investors. We believe that it will create
business opportunities for us,” CP Vice-Chairman Adirek Sripratak said
last year.
The Thai giant has established some agricultural business in Burma
but, according to some observers, the investment has brought mixed
blessings.
“CP already has operations here in Myanmar growing, amongst other
things, corn for animal feed. Issues around the CP model for corn
production with high levels of inputs has drawn criticism and if this
model is replicated across the country then negative consequences for
production sustainability will likely result,” Tobias Jackson of the
Food Security Working Group (FSWG) in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on June
26.
“Agri-business investments across the Mekong region have a very mixed
track record. Large-scale, monoculture, industrial agriculture
plantation investments stand accused in many cases of land grabbing and
displacing communities and farmers from their land and of increasing
rather than reducing poverty,” said Jackson.
The FSWG is an umbrella organisation of Burmese and international
NGOs working to improve farming and the lives of farming communities.
Bangkok-based CP has mushroomed from its original family seed supply
business to become an international conglomerate ranging from processed
packaged foods to telecommunications, motorbike manufacture and
insurance.
CP today employs 280,000 people, many of them in China, and operates
the world’s third-largest 7-Eleven stores chain franchise, according to
Bloomberg business news agency.
Chairman Dhanin, whose hobbies include cock fighting, was listed by
Bloomberg at the end of 2012 as having personal wealth of $6.1 billion.
CP was unable to comment for this report, or to provide any details
of its proposed new investments in Burma which were outlined when Adirek
visited Naypyidaw and had a one-to-one meeting with President Thein
Sein.
“Generally, there are major concerns over the weaknesses in the land
laws for farmers in Myanmar, including the absence of protection for
traditional shifting cultivation practices, and there are consistent
reports of powerful interests, including companies and Myanmar state
agents confiscating land from farmers with no or little compensation for
agribusiness projects,” Paul Donowitz of the US-based NGO EarthRights
International told The Irrawaddy.
“While we have no direct information on CP, companies invested in, or
considering investing in the agribusiness sector who have poor track
records on labor and other core human rights issues are a serious
concern, and their investments should be closely scrutinized.”
The Bangkok-based Burmese migrants right group Human Rights and
Development Foundation said the 160 workers fired by CP at the Mahachai
seafood factory had been told by one manager that their Thai language
skills were not good enough. However, they had been campaigning to be
paid part wages after their working week was reduced due to a fish
shortage.
“[Agribusiness investments] also stand accused of negative
environmental impacts and of illegal logging associated with concession
development. Contract farming engagements between companies and farmers
offer some potential for poverty reduction but are often implemented
without sufficient respect for farmers’ rights and without farmers
having sufficient knowledge, which results in exploitative contracts,”
said Jackson
“CP employs both these production systems in their operations in the
region and so one can infer that they will employ these systems in
Myanmar with the potential associated negative consequences as described
above,” he added.
Dhanin, whose family arrived in Thailand as poor Chinese migrants in
the early 20th century, has top political connections in China where CP
operates over 200 companies and employs more than 80,000 people.
The future may be brighter for Burmese farmers if Dhanin holds true to his Buddhist principles.
“People who feed the country shouldn’t be poor,” he was quoted by
Bloomberg as saying last December when it listed his multi-billion
dollar wealth.
source: The Irrawaddy
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