The Singaporean firm Emerging Towns and Cities (ETC) has sold its controlling shares in the development company tasked with building the Golden City complex, a real estate project in Yangon’s Yankin Township.
In February 2021, an investigation by the activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM) exposed payments totalling more than US$5m from ETC to the quartermaster general’s office of the Myanmar army in connection with their stake in the project.
The massive mixed-used real estate complex, which housed skyscrapers with corporate offices and luxury apartments, was being built on land leased from the Myanmar military.
After the investigation’s findings were released, the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which lists ETC, enforced a regulatory action against the company. The action required ETC to hire independent auditing firms, Kelvin Chia Partnership and Nexia TS Advisory, to review its business ties with the military for possible noncompliance with Singaporean law and international sanctions.
The review was completed in December 2022. ETC has now sold its shares in the Golden City project, held through its subsidiary DAS, for $4m, incurring a loss of more than $80m according to JFM.
The buyer of ETC’s shares is another Singapore-based company, Grand Ally Pte Ltd, which was established in February of this year. Grand Ally is owned by three Chinese nationals who hold shares in ETC, one of whom has worked as the company’s director of sales and marketing in Myanmar.
While Singapore has prohibited the sale of arms and other material to Myanmar that may be used for internal repression since 1988, it is not clear that the ETC transactions with the Myanmar military or Grand Ally’s ongoing business in Myanmar violate Singaporean law or international sanctions.
One of the independent firms commissioned to review ETC’s transactions with the Myanmar military, Kelvin Chia Partnership, recommended that in order to ensure compliance, ETC should avoid transacting business with entities or hiring individuals from countries targeting the Myanmar regime with sanctions. The extent of ETC’s international business connections may have made the recommendation difficult to follow.
In addition to urging all governments to impose sanctions targeting Grand Ally and other Golden City-connected businesses, JFM specifically called on Singapore government and business entities to end any ongoing exposure to business with the Myanmar military.
“We urge Singapore to deregister Grand Ally Pte Ltd and to impose sanctions on the junta and its
business interests,” the activist group said in a statement. “Singapore banks should ensure that they do not hold accounts for Grand Ally or support the Golden City project in any way.”
Recently, Singapore’s government and business entities have faced difficulties in ensuring compliance with international sanctions and the country’s own laws restricting business with Myanmar.
The Singaporean financial firm United Overseas Bank decided in June to close all outstanding accounts held at the bank by the airline Myanmar Airways International (MAI), for reasons that remain unconfirmed but may have involved a breach of the bank’s policies.
The Singporean parliament initiated an inquiry last week following a report by a United Nations human rights expert suggesting that, despite Singapore’s long-standing ban on arms transfers to Myanmar, Singapore firms were helping to supply equipment to the junta with a military use.
