Mekong Watch CATFISH TALES
TOPIC: ENGLISH VERSION OF NEW JBIC ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES AVAILABLE
Date: 7 October 2003
ENGLISH VERSION OF NEW JBIC ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES AVAILABLE
New guidelines covering environmental and social factors for all operations
of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation went into effect on 1
October 2003. An objections procedure also came into effect the same day.
The new guidelines, officially called the "Japan Bank for International
Cooperation Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social
Considerations," were adopted on 1 April 2002. Eighteen months later, they
have come into effect with the Objections Procedure. The English version
of both are now available on JBIC's website.
New Environmental and Social Guidelines:
http://www.jbic.go.jp/english/environ/guide/finance/eguide/index.php
New Objections Procedure:
http://www.jbic.go.jp/english/environ/pdf/objection.pdf
GOOD NEWS
The new guidelines are a marked improvement over the previous guidelines,
especially in regard to information disclosure, responsiveness, and the
adoption of the Objections Procedure. The Objections Procedure is a formal
mechanism to raise complaints in cases where JBIC fails to comply with its
new Guidelines. See JBIC's website for more details.
THINGS WE MUST STILL "CONSIDER"
a) Though the new Guidelines were put into effect on October 1st, we will
not see the actual effectiveness of these Guidelines for ODA loans until
late 2004.
Requests for loans from recipient governments must meet an August deadline
each year. Because the Guidelines came into effect in October this year,
requests submitted in August are not strictly subject to the new
Guidelines. The first ODA loan projects which will be subject to the new
Guidelines will be those requested at the end of August in 2004. ODA loans
requested prior to October 2003 are subject to older guidelines, namely,
the "JBIC Environmental Guidelines for ODA Loans."
b) Application of the new Guidelines for international financing
operations will be more immediate.
Unlike ODA loans, requests for international financing can be made at any
time. So while we are waiting to see the impacts of the new guidelines on
ODA loan projects next year, we must monitor the more immediate effects on
import/export credits and other such international financing
operations. For international financing operations prior to 1 October
2003, the old guidelines ("Environmental Guidelines for International
Financial Operations") are applied.
c) A list of projects now under consideration at JBIC for financing is
available on JBIC's website, but only in Japanese. This is a list of
projects already screened for environmental categorization.
Mekong Watch is pushing JBIC to maintain an updated list of projects under
consideration in English. To strengthen this call, please contact JBIC and
express your interest in seeing this list in English (contact details, etc
will be provided soon in the next Catfish Tales). Until the information is
available in English, we recommend that those who are concerned about
specific projects ask someone who can read Japanese to look at the website
below and check whether or not JBIC has finished screening or not
List of projects screened by JBIC:
http://www.jbic.go.jp/japanese/environ/joho/project.php
d) Lastly, Mekong Watch is dissatisfied with the process by which the
Examiners for the Objection Procedure were chosen.
Forty applicants responded to a public announcement for 2 positions as
Examiner for the Objections Procedure. On October 1st, JBIC announced on
its website the 2 people selected for these positions. JBIC had formed a
selection committee comprised of a JBIC board member, the Philippine
Ambassador to Japan, an academic, and representatives from the private
sector and an NGO to make the selection. It is very regrettable that both
the academic and NGO representative chosen to participate on the selection
committee were not knowledgeable about negative environmental and social
impacts resulting from development projects. We can only conclude that
either little thought was given to who the selection committee should
include, or that one criteria was having a friendly bias towards the
government. As for criteria for selection of the Examiners, JBIC listed
the criteria on its website, but there is no explanation of why the two
candidates were chosen above the others. It is disturbing that the 2 were
selected based solely upon a review of their written applications. No
interviews were conducted. It is unfortunately impossible to say that the
process of choosing the Examiners ensured even the minimum transparency or
fairness.