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19 Mar 2002
Morgan Stanley AGM, 11:30am Tuesday, 19 March, at 25 Cabot Square,
Canary Wharf, London.
Human rights and environmental campaigners will highlight the growing
threat to investment bank Morgan Stanley's shareholder value at the
company's annual general meeting in London today (19th
March). Efforts to pressure Morgan Stanley are being led by Friends
of the Earth (FOE), the International Rivers Network (IRN), Students
for a Free Tibet (SFT) and Free Tibet Campaign (FTC). The groups
are all engaged in campaigns targeting Morgan Stanley for its lack of
environmental and social risk management policies, which have led the
company to underwrite some of the most controversial projects in Asia.
These include the Three Gorges Dam in China, resource extraction projects
in Tibet and rainforest destruction in Indonesia.
Morgan Stanley has underwritten bonds for the China Development Bank
and the government of the People's Republic of China, as well as the
initial public offerings (IPOs)of Chinese and Indonesian companies including
PetroChina, Chalco and Asia Pulp and Paper (see notes). By underwriting
these bonds and IPOs, Morgan Stanley is a key component to the financing
of controversial projects that have huge environmental and social impacts,
and have been carried out without proper consultation with affected
people.
These projects include the hugely controversial Three Gorges Dam in
China and the Golmud-Lhasa Railway in Tibet. Many of these projects
are avoided by organizations such as the World Bank because of failure
to incorporate environmental and social safeguards.
Doris Shen, of the Three Gorges Campaign (IRN), said:
"Is Morgan Stanley planning to carve a niche in financing risks
that others companies won't touch because of environmental and social
concerns? Is the company prepared for the growing consumer backlash?”
Alison Reynolds, Director of Free Tibet Campaign said:
"The Chinese government's Western Development Plan threatens to
devastate large areas of Tibet through mining and habitat destruction
because of its focus on large scale natural resource extraction. Tibetans
have no say in these plans. By underwriting these projects Morgan Stanley
is helping to finance destruction and oppression in Tibet. It's
incredible that Morgan Stanley has not yet adopted guidelines to screen
its investments for social and environmental impact. It's time the company
seriously addressed these issues or it will risk adding consumer backlashes
to its growing list of problems this year."
Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth said:
"Morgan Stanley has helped finance Asia Pulp &Paper to the
tune of $2 billion. This finance has contributed towards the destruction
of one of the richest and most diverse rainforest habitats on Earth.
As a result Morgan Stanley has taken on an inordinate level of risk.
This company should implement a Forests Policy to ensure that it doesn't
continue to finance massive forest destruction."
Members of the groups demonstrating at the AGM plan to hand out a report called Rogue Traders to shareholders (www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/rogue_traders.pdf). The report details the grave consequences for millions of people in China, Tibet and Indonesia of Morgan Stanley's activities and encourages them to put pressure the company to take steps to ameliorate this problem, including formulating social and environmental screening policies. The organizations all vow to continue their campaigns to draw public attention to Morgan Stanley's financial involvement in environmentally devastating and politically reprehensible projects.
Projects and companies that Morgan Stanley are directly linked to include:
International Rivers Network:
www.irn.org
Free Tibet Campaign:
www.freetibet.org
Friends of the Earth:
www.foe.co.uk
Students for a Free Tibet:
www.tibet.org/sft
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
Media team
