The Business Practices of a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise in Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone: Perspectives of Local Non-State Stakeholders

The Business Practices of a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise in Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone: Perspectives of Local Non-State Stakeholders

The Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) in Myanmar is part of China’s massive international development strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). To advance the KSEZ, the Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) has asserted its commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this paper, we investigate how CITIC’s CSR practices are perceived by two groups of local non-state stakeholders: Myanmar villagers and civil society organizations (CSOs). To this end, we conducted 31 qualitative interviews with non-state stakeholders in Kyaukphyu Township between March 2022 and October 2023. According to our interview results, there is a substantial though not universal local perception that CITIC’s publicly broadcast commitment to CSR has served primarily to advance the KSEZ and left the concerns of local residents largely unaddressed. By examining CITIC’s stated commitment and its actual commitment to CSR as perceived by the local non-state stakeholders, we aim in this study to deepen our understanding of the business practices of Chinese SOEs in overseas investments and to enrich the research on the BRI in Myanmar.