...Today’s Human Rights Watch report concerning our shared investment in PHC/Feronia [...] highlights the need for further investment to improve environmental and working conditions at the company. Realising improvements to working conditions and community infrastructure is central to DFIs’ engagement with Feronia. We therefore welcome HRW’s research and will continue to work with Feronia on how to best address these urgent challenges. We take very seriously our role and commitment as long-term socially responsible DFI investors to manage salient impacts and help to achieve positive change in challenging and imperfect contexts...

Investments like Feronia are never quick fixes. They take a great deal of investment, expertise and – most importantly – time and commitment to put right...

Throughout our engagement with HRW, we have been transparent about the company’s challenges...

[T]he issues raised by HRW in its report are important and the company, owners and lenders are committed to tackling them. Actions we are taking are detailed below...

Our ambitions for the company will not be achieved until it is financially self-sufficient and operating to international standards concerning working conditions and environmental best practice.

To that end, our motivation and goals are the same as HRW...