The Myanmar government wants western companies seeking to tap into its economy to hit the ground running in terms of corporate responsibility

This column has tackled the issue of the reform and democratisation process in Myanmar (Burma) previously – a year ago to be precise. And a lot has happened since those heady days. Myanmar has enjoyed a brief moment in the sun of optimism with corporations from hotels to gas firms, foreign governments from Washington to Beijing and international organisations from APEC to the IMF, all bullish on the reforms.

However, as we warned before, there are many stumbling blocks for Myanmar including continued ethnic tensions, a strong and politically influential military, problematic neighbours and the general shenanigans of being an emerging market and the rush of investment leading to corruption and bad decision making.

Recently the criticism has come from no less than “The Lady”, the highly influential (both locally and globally) Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has criticised the constitution that states that she cannot run for president because her sons are half British. Meeting with a visiting President Barack Obama, Suu Kyi diplomatically referred to Myanmar’s current constitutional and political situation as having hit a "bumpy patch". What many commentators see now is a stalled political reform process under Thein Sein’s government and possible clashes ahead of the next general elections in 2015.

Still international business remains keen on the possibilities of the Myanmar market and the Myanmar consumer. Colgate recently bought local toothpaste brand Laser for a reported $100mn. Other major brands expanding in Myanmar include GE, Coca-Cola, Gap and Carlsberg, which has just entered a joint venture with a local brewer. Japanese consumer companies are also active – Unicharm (a leading Japanese diaper manufacturer) recently bought Myanmar’s largest diaper brand.

Health and education

But as all these global brands look to tap into the spending power of Myanmar’s 53 million people, what ethical and corporate social responsibility policies are they planning? Quite a few of the global brands have entered Myanmar with CSR campaigns running ahead of their actual brand launches. Colgate has been running health/dental hygiene education programmes even out in far-flung villages that aren’t really expected to start buying Colgate’s higher-priced brands immediately.

Other brands are also getting involved in issues of national concern that tangentially benefit them too. For instance, Procter & Gamble is working in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development to jointly invest $2m in projects aimed at providing clean drinking water through provision of P&G Purifier of Water packets.

Education is a big theme of much of the corporate responsibility activities now being launched – Colgate on dental hygiene as mentioned as well as P&G running campaigns to promote more hygienic behaviour and higher awareness of issues around mothers and children. Others are looking at more obviously charitable endeavours: P&G is donating vaccines to prevent maternal and neonatal tetanus among newborn babies and these are linked to the “Pampers” diaper brand, which is a strong seller across Asia, including now in Myanmar.

On-packet advertising of the vaccination programme and the idea that buying Pampers means P&G donates more vaccines is underway. Meanwhile Coca-Cola is working mostly through its Coca-Cola Foundation in Myanmar and has announced a grant of $3m to be spent on financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business management programmes and education for local women. Coca-Cola’s programme, which began in 2012, is run jointly with Pact, an NGO.

The Coca-Cola story tells why corporate social responsibility is immediately important to many companies launching in Myanmar. Coca-Cola ran its programme for more than a year in the country before actually receiving its licence from the Yangon authorities and being allowed to invest by the US government (which had maintained trade sanctions against Myanmar until it was sure the democratisation process was real and under way). Showing willing is crucial to longer-term success, it seems.

The Yangon government is pretty clear that it is expecting foreign companies to arrive with corporate social responsibility policies ready to implement. Speaking recently, Professor Aung Tun Thet, the economic adviser to the Myanmar president and a member of the Myanmar Investment Commission, said: “We are now moving towards CSR 2.0. CSR must be built-in, not bolt-on.” In the new Myanmar, CSR, it seems, will be an imperative right from the start for those wishing to tap into Asia’s newest consumer market.

Asia column  CSR campaigns  Myanmar 

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