The move to exclude the company is based on advice from the Council on Ethics.

“We cannot finance companies that support the military dictatorship in Burma through the sale of military materials,” says Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen.

The Ministry of Finance amended its ethical guidelines in October 2008. “These changes meant that the fund’s assets can no longer be invested in companies that sell weapons or other military materials to Burma, and this is the first time the new exclusion criteria regarding the sale of weapons and military materials to Burma has been applied,” says Halvorsen. 

The Council on Ethics refers in its advice to the criteria applied in the EU’s and the USA’s weapons embargoes directed at Burma. The EU operates wide ranging exclusion criteria that specifically mention military vehicles and their spare parts. The American prohibition is directed at any product that has a significant military application, and that has been manufactured or adapted for military purposes. The Council on Ethics has looked to these definitions in its advice and concludes that the sale of trucks to the Burmese military would be in contravention of the ethical guidelines for the Government Pension Fund - Global. 

The sale of all shares in the company, worth approximately NOK 30 million. has now been completed.

(NRK/Press release)

Rolleiv Solholm