One of Myanmar’s biggest companies said last week it cooperated with Global Witness when it compiled a damning report on the country’s jade trade and has pledged to continue assisting the watchdog group.
“Global Witness got a lot of their information from the Kanbawza Bank so we helped them with their report,” KBZ Group senior managing director U Nyo Myint told Frontier magazine. “And we will continue to cooperate with Global Witness in their next report,” he said.
In a report on the jade trade released in October, Global Witness claimed that exports in 2014 earned about US$31 billion, with most of the revenue untaxed and going into the pockets of the military elite and some well-connected business groups.
Global Witness said that the KBZ Group had links to the Ever Winner Company, which runs 12 jade mining companies in Kachin State.
U Nyo Myint said a former KBZ Group employee had established a company that was involved in jade mining in Kachin.
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“KBZ Group is ready to cooperate with international organisations including Global Witness in a transparent manner,” he said.
Surveys by the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business have rated Kanbawza Group one of the country’s most transparent companies. It was ranked third for corporate transparency by the centre this year, down from first in 2014.
KBZ Bank has been approved as the settlement bank for the newly-opened Yangon Stock Exchange and was also the first company to be granted a securities licence to trade in stocks.
