Mekong Watch CATFISH TALES
TOPIC: JBIC STUMBLES INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES:
Date: 14 April 2004
JBIC STUMBLES INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES:
--LACKS RESOURCES TO RELEASE INFORMATION IN ENGLISH?--
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has yet to live up to
its responsibility to provide important information to stakeholders in
spite of its professed commitment to do so under its new Environmental
Guidelines.
JBIC's new Environmental Guidelines, adopted in April 2002, went into
effect in October 2003 (see Catfish Tales #1 and #14 for more
information). Though the Guidelines are now in effect, JBIC is not
releasing the information it should, and it is not implementing the
guidelines appropriately. NGOs that participated in consultations to
develop the Guidelines are unhappy that their successful efforts to include
progressive provisions in the Guidelines have thus far been negated by
JBIC's poor implementation.
Of the various Official Development Assistance (ODA) schemes, JBIC is
responsible for Yen Loans, and also provides import and export credits to
Japanese corporations (non-ODA international financing). JBIC is the
world's largest international finance institution, and its new Guidelines
cover both its yen loan and international financing operations. The
Guidelines commit JBIC to proactive information disclosure, and a
complaints mechanism called the Objection Procedures was also established
under the Guidelines. For this, JBIC (as an export credit agency) is being
heralded as cutting edge.
Unfortunately, JBIC is already stumbling over its commitments in the
Guidelines.
INFORMATION ONLY IN JAPANESE
According to the Guidelines, JBIC welcomes information provided from
stakeholders and releases information regarding projects it is considering
financing so that stakeholders can contact JBIC with concerns as early as
possible. Certain types of information are uploaded on JBIC's website
immediately after screening projects it is considering funding and
categorizing them according to the degree of anticipated
environmental/social impacts.
At present, however, JBIC is providing this information only in
Japanese. While English is also a barrier to accessing information for
many local NGOs and project affected people, making information available
only in Japanese makes it nearly impossible for them to get the information
they need-unless they or people they know have Japanese language capacity.
Also according to the Guidelines, after a decision has been made to finance
a project, the results of JBIC's environmental review of the project are
put on JBIC's website. This information is important in order to ensure
the accountability of JBIC's environmental reviews, and is essential
information in the event that stakeholders would choose to use the
Objection Procedures. However, this information is also being provided
only in Japanese.
OTHER CONCERNS
In addition to the above, other concerns regarding JBIC's implementation of
the new Guidelines are as follows:
*JBIC's website is supposed to list whether or not JBIC has received
documents related to social and environmental considerations, such as
relocation plans. While JBIC will provide this information regarding
Environmental Impact Assessments and EIA Certificates, information on
relocation plans and other documents is not being disclosed on the
website. A JBIC official has explained that JBIC does not intend to put up
this information after all.
*Not only are results of environmental reviews being provided only in
Japanese, the only information available is a 1-2 page summary. There is
no explanation of how JBIC responded to any concerns raised by stakeholders
and other parties outside JBIC.
*In meetings between NGOs and JBIC regarding problems with specific
projects, only the department responsible for overseeing investment attends
the meetings. Officials responsible for examining environmental concerns
do not attend.
*JBIC does not respond in writing to concerns raised or information
provided by stakeholders in writing.
The most progressive provisions in the Guidelines are regarding information
disclosure and encouraging stakeholders to provide JBIC with
information. These provisions are also essential to prevent damage to
environments and livelihoods from JBIC projects. The fact that these
promises are not being kept, now that the Guidelines are actually in
effect, is evidence of JBIC's lagging commitment in using the Guidelines to
prevent damage from occurring as a result of its projects.
At a regular meeting between JBIC and NGOs on February 26, Mekong Watch and
other NGOs pointed out these problems and called for them to be
resolved. At this meeting, Mr. Yoshio Wada, the director of a division in
JBIC's Development Assistance Strategy Department, made inadequate excuses
such as "providing information in English requires too many
resources." NGOs can only conclude that JBIC is not interested in
resolving the remaining problems-especially considering that much of the
information put on JBIC's website in Japanese is originally provided by
recipient governments in English.
NGO ACTION-PROVIDING INFORMATION IN ENGLISH
NGOs must continue to push JBIC to be more responsible by raising these
issues with the Finance and Foreign Affairs Ministries (which oversee JBIC).
As a result of JBIC's failures in the above-mentioned areas, Japanese NGOs
are establishing our own website to provide the information that JBIC
should be. Information available in Japanese regarding JBIC projects that
are expected to have significant environmental and social impacts will be
put up in English on our website at <www.jbic-watch.net>. This website
will be operational at the end of April 2004.
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