Inter Press Service
January 12, 2006

As a top investment bank criticized for involvement in the Three Gorges dam prepares to unveil an environmental policy, activists wonder whether Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s words will be turned into significant action.

Washington: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, one of the world’s top investment banks with more than $8 billion in reported revenues last quarter alone, is expected to unveil an environmental policy in the next month or so. The flavor, details, and motivation behind the policy remain under tight wraps. Morgan Stanley spokespersons, having announced only that a policy was in the works, declined repeated requests for information and comment. The secrecy appears to have heightened anticipation among the New York-based international financier’s critics. "We’ll see if Morgan Stanley turns these words into significant action," says Doris Shen, corporate finance campaign coordinator at International Rivers Network (IRN), U.S.-based advocacy group. Shen and others have attacked Morgan Stanley for financing or helping to arrange funds for major infrastructure and energy projects in Asia that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have said will destroy local environments and fuel human rights abuses. These include China’s Three Gorges Dam and the Gormo-Lhasa Railway project in Tibet. Environmentalists and Tibetan groups are calling on the bank to adopt guidelines akin to those suggested by the World Commission on Dams and the exiled Tibetan government in India. According to a report released by environmentalists and Tibet advocates at Morgan Stanley’s annual meeting in March, the investment bank is involved indirectly in financing of projects that violate several of these recommended guidelines. In 2000, the World Commission on Dams released a report recommending that no dam be built without the clear agreement of affected people on issues such as compensation and resettlement.