Telenor response to the Business and Human Rights Resource Center - Myanmar human rights due diligence survey (two years after the attempted coup)

30 January 2023

Telenor came to Myanmar with a purpose: to connect the people of Myanmar with each other – and the world. Built on more than 20 years of Asian experience, Telenor Myanmar became a leader in responsible business and lived its purpose of empowering societies and connecting customers to what matters most to them. Unfortunately, the extraordinary situation since the military takeover on 1 February 2021 made it impossible for Telenor to continue operations in Myanmar. Telenor announced the completion of the sale of Telenor Myanmar on 25 March 2022.

Telenor has no remaining business operations or investments in Myanmar. Telenor has conducted enhanced due diligence ever since it entered Myanmar. It commissioned a 3rd party pre-entry human rights impact assessment which identified several high-risk issues and contexts which Telenor continuously worked on to mitigate. This included how to operate responsibly in remote and conflict affected areas and in a context with a limited regulatory framework. Throughout its presence in Myanmar, Telenor sought the expertise of both local and international organisations; continuously monitored and assessed developments in the country, established and participated in both formal and informal stakeholder engagement efforts, and took steps to address potential and actual impacts that were identified.

The military takeover on 1 February 2021 triggered a further intensification of Telenor’s due diligence efforts. Eventually, the military takeover put Telenor in a position where it had no choice but to leave the country. The company used all internal expertise as well as external capacity to assess the situation and consider potential alternatives. The conclusion based on these assessments was that selling the business was the least detrimental solution for customers, employees and the broader society. Human rights impacts including data privacy were key considerations leading up to the decision to sell Telenor Myanmar, alongside personnel safety.

As part of the sales process, ownership of Telenor Myanmar as an operating company was transferred to the buyer, M1 Group (The regulatory approval required that M1 ensured a local majority owner after the closing of the transaction between Telenor and M1, with the eventual majority owner of the company being the local partner Shwe Byain Phyu). The company would continue operations, ensure job continuity for its staff and avoid disruption of services for customers.

Following Telenor’s exit from Myanmar, it has remained committed to continue sharing its experiences and learnings from the situation in Myanmar, and is engaging in dialogue with peers, civil society, investors and governments. In addition, Telenor is engaging in the OECD Norwegian National Contact Point specific instance procedure following the complaint raised related to the sale of Telenor Myanmar. In October 2022, the preliminary memorandum of understanding which was reached as part of the mediation, was publicly released. The MoU captures the status of the mediation discussions, the agreements and acknowledgements made by both parties, and a path forward for further mediation and agreement. For further information about this process, please visit: Update on the ongoing OECD complaint lodged against Telenor regarding its sale of Telenor Myanmar - Telenor Group

For more information about Telenor and Myanmar, please visit the site on Telenor.com dedicated to this: Myanmar - Telenor Group