June 23, 2023

In June 2023, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited us to respond to the report released by the “Justice For Myanmar” (the Report) concerning the Japan-financed railway projects in Myanmar. Please be informed of our response as follows:

As you may have understood, the referenced project is one of ODA projects financed by the Japanese Government in accordance with the diplomat request by the Myanmar Government.

We, Sumitomo Corporation, are a member of joint venture implementing the Contract with Myanmar Railways started 2019.

We recognize that this project will contribute to the lives of the citizens in Myanmar, and such fundamentals of the project have been confirmed by both governments. Further, we are not aware of any possibility of this project supporting any military’s activities.

We have been pursuing ways to respect international human rights standards in accordance with the Sumitomo Corporation Group’s Human Rights Policy.

We keep working on this project in line with the Japanese Government policy and we have a firm belief that the project will contribute to improvement of the lives of the citizens in Myanmar.

We keep monitoring the situation closely as we would like to strive to mitigate human rights risks of people in Myanmar, and we continue putting our priority on the safety of our employees and all other people involved in this project.