[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 151 (Monday, August 6, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46786-46788]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-19283]


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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice 7971]


60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Reporting 
Requirements for Responsible Investment in Burma

ACTION: Notice of request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of State is seeking Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) approval for the information collection described below. 
The purpose of this notice is to allow 60 days for public comment in 
the Federal Register preceding submission to OMB. We are conducting 
this process in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: The Department will accept comments from the public up to 
October 5, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Web: Persons with access to the Internet may view and 
comment on this notice by going to the Federal regulations Web site at 
www.regulations.gov. You can search for the document by: selecting 
``Notice'' under Document Type, entering the Public Notice number as 
the ``Keyword or ID'', checking the ``Open for Comment'' box, and then 
click ``Search''. If necessary, use the ``Narrow by Agency'' option on 
the Results page.
     Email: [email protected].
     Mail (paper, or CD submissions): U.S. Department of State, 
DRL/EAP Suite 7817, Burma Human Rights Officer, 2201 C St. NW., 
Washington, DC 20520.
     Fax: None.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: None.
    You must include the DS form number (if applicable), information 
collection title, and OMB control number in any correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Direct requests for additional 
information regarding the collection listed in this notice, including 
requests for copies of the proposed information collection and 
supporting documents, to Stacey May, U.S. Department of State, DRL/EAP 
Suite 7817, 2201 C St. NW., Washington, DC 20520, who may be reached on 
202-647-8260 or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  Title of Information Collection: 
Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma.
     OMB Control Number: None.
     Type of Request: New Collection.
     Originating Office: U.S. Department of State, DRL/EAP.
     Form Number: None.
     Respondents: U.S. persons and entities engaged in new 
investment in Burma in an amount over $500,000 in aggregate, per OFAC 
General License 17, which authorizes new investment in Burma.
     Estimated Number of Respondents: 150.
     Estimated Number of Responses: 150.
     Average Hours Per Response: 21 hours.
     Total Estimated Burden: 3,150 hours.
     Frequency: Annually.
     Obligation to Respond: Mandatory.
    We are soliciting public comments to permit the Department to:
     Evaluate whether the proposed information collection is 
necessary for the proper performance of our functions.
     Evaluate the accuracy of our estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection, including the validity of the methodology and 
assumptions used.
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected.
     Minimize the reporting burden on those who are to respond, 
including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
technology.
    Abstract of proposed collection:
    Section 203(a)(1)(B) of the International Emergency Economic Powers 
Act (IEEPA) grants the President authority to, inter alia, prevent or 
prohibit any acquisition or transaction involving any property, in 
which a foreign country or a national thereof has any interest, by any 
person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of 
the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with 
respect to any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source 
in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national 
security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. See 50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.
    In Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, the President determined 
that the actions and policies of the Government

[[Page 46787]]

of Burma, including its large-scale repression of the democratic 
opposition in Burma, constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to 
the national security and foreign policy of the United States, declared 
a national emergency to deal with that threat, and prohibited new 
investment in Burma. In subsequent Executive Orders, the President 
modified the scope of the national emergency to address additional 
concerns with the actions and policies of the Government of Burma. In 
Executive Order 13448 of October 18, 2007, the President modified the 
emergency to address the continued repression of the democratic 
opposition in Burma, manifested in part through the commission of human 
rights abuses and pervasive public corruption. In Executive Order 13619 
of July 11, 2012, the President further modified the emergency to 
address, inter alia, human rights abuses particularly in ethnic areas. 
In response to several political reforms by the Government of Burma and 
pursuant to authority granted by IEEPA, the Department of the 
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a general 
license (GL 17) on July 11, 2012 authorizing new investment in Burma, 
subject to certain restrictions and conditions.
    In order to support the Department of State's efforts to assess the 
extent to which new U.S. investment authorized by GL 17 furthers U.S. 
foreign policy goals of improving human rights protections and 
facilitating political reform in Burma, GL 17 requires U.S. persons 
engaging in new investment in Burma to report to the Department of 
State information related to such investment, as laid out in the 
``Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma,'' 
(hereafter referred to as the ``collection''). This collection is 
authorized by section 203(a)(2) of IEEPA, which grants the President 
authority to keep a full record of, and to furnish under oath, in the 
form of reports or otherwise, complete information relative to any act 
or transaction referred to in section 203(a)(1) of IEEPA.
    A copy of the ``Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment'' 
can be reviewed at http://www.humanrights.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Burma-Responsible-Investment-Reporting-Reqs.pdf.
    Methodology:
    The Department of State will collect the information requested via 
electronic submission.
    Additional Information:
    It is the overarching policy goal of the U.S. Government to support 
political reform in Burma towards the establishment of a peaceful, 
prosperous, and democratic state that respects human rights and the 
rule of law. In the past, some foreign investment in Burma has been 
linked to human rights abuses, particularly in the area of natural 
resource development in ethnic minority regions. For example, some 
foreign investments have entailed acquisition and control of land in 
disputed ethnic minority territories exacerbating or contributing to 
both social unrest and armed conflict and leading to adverse community 
and environmental impacts. Increased military/security presence in 
disputed ethnic minority areas to provide security for foreign 
investment projects is reported to have led to seizures of farm land, 
involuntary relocations, forced labor, torture, summary execution, and 
sexual violence. In June 2011, a 17-year ceasefire agreement with the 
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke down, and both the Burmese 
Government and the KIA have since publicly attributed the renewed armed 
fighting at least partially to foreign-funded investment projects, 
which include power generation, oil and gas, jade, and gold mining 
investment projects in the region. The Burma Army has reportedly forced 
civilians to work as porters and human mine sweepers in northern Shan 
State in connection with the Shwe Gas pipeline and there have been 
numerous recent reports of forced labor, torture, forced conscription, 
rape and sexual violence in Kachin and Shan states along the Shwe Gas 
pipeline corridor.
    The collection will help the Department of State, in consultation 
with other relevant government agencies, to evaluate whether easing the 
ban on investment by U.S. persons advances U.S. foreign policy goals to 
address the national emergency with respect to Burma. In addition, the 
Department of State will use the collection as a basis to conduct 
informed consultations with U.S. businesses to encourage and assist 
such businesses to develop robust policies and procedures to address 
any potential adverse human rights, worker rights, anti-corruption, 
environmental, or other impacts resulting from their investments and 
operations in Burma. The Department of State will use the collection of 
information about new investment with the Myanmar Oil and Gas 
Enterprise (MOGE) to track investment that involves MOGE and to 
identify investors with whom it may be beneficial to have targeted 
consultation on anti-corruption and human rights policies. The public, 
including civil society actors in Burma, may use publicly available 
information resulting from the collection to engage U.S. businesses on 
their responsible investment policies and procedures and to monitor the 
Burmese government's management of revenues from investment.
    U.S. persons to whom this requirement applies will be required to 
submit a version of the report to the U.S. Government for public 
release, from which information considered in good faith to be exempt 
from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 4--i.e. trade secrets or 
commercial or financial information that is privileged or 
confidential--may be withheld. The Department of State will make this 
version of the report publically available in order to promote 
transparency with respect to new U.S. investments in Burma. In the 
past, the absence of transparency or publicly available information 
with respect to foreign investment activities in Burma has contributed 
to corruption and misuse of public funds, the erosion of public trust, 
and social unrest in ethnic minority areas and has led to further human 
rights abuses and repression by the government and military. Public 
disclosure of certain aspects of the collection therefore will promote 
the policy of transparency through new U.S. investment, a key U.S. 
foreign policy objective in Burma.
    Burmese civil society groups, particularly those representing 
ethnic minority communities, have requested that the Department of 
State make public certain information obtained through the collection 
on investments purportedly made for the benefit of the Burmese people, 
as a means of holding their own government accountable. Nobel Peace 
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's democratic 
opposition party and recently elected to a seat in Burma's parliament, 
also underscored the importance of transparency in her recent remarks 
in Bangkok, noting that she did not want ``more investment to mean more 
possibilities for corruption.'' This was among the most specific of the 
recommendations she made to the international community, stressing that 
``Transparency is very important if we are going to avoid problems in 
the future* * * So whatever investments, governmental agreements, 
whatever aid might be proposed, please make sure that it is 
transparent, that the people of Burma are in a position to understand

[[Page 46788]]

what has been done, and how and for whom the benefits are intended.''
    Therefore public release of portions of this collection is aimed at 
providing civil society this type of information to both ensure the 
transparency of U.S. investment in Burma and to encourage civil society 
to partner with their government and U.S. companies towards building 
responsible investment, which ultimately promotes U.S. foreign policy 
goals.

    Dated: July 31, 2012.
Daniel Baer,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 2012-19283 Filed 8-2-12; 4:15 pm]
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