Mallard plays down fuss over Myanmar contract

Telecommunications company Kordia should have told the Government it was doing business in Myanmar, but the lapse was understandable, State Owned Enterprise Minister Trevor Mallard said yesterday.

The National Party has criticised the Government stance over the state-owned broadcast and telecommunications business's contract in military-ruled Myanmar.

National foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully said it was contradictory that the Government had no problem with Kordia's contract when it had "tantrums" over Air New Zealand carrying Australian troops to the Iraq war.

Kordia -- formerly BCL -- is working with Thai firm ALT Inter Corporation through a joint venture called Kordia Solutions Thailand to do engineering work on cell tower installations for government-controlled Myanmar Post and Telecommunications.

Mallard said the contract was a small one.

"The Government's view is we don't set our foreign policy and trade sanctions through an $80,000 contract by a state-owned enterprise," Mallard said.

Neither New Zealand nor the United Nations had imposed economic sanctions on the oppressive regime, he said. Kordia had generally done things very well.

"It would have been useful to know, but it is not the sort of thing which I think ministers would want to direct on," Mallard said.

"There is always a debate about where organisations should go and government-owned organisations ought to have high standards, and that is something Kordia are aware of."

Mallard said the small contract did not get the scrutiny a larger deal might have.

"This is not at all close to the Iraq question ...

"The Government was very clear on its position on Iraq. It was a very big, public, controversial issue ... This is very minor in comparison," Mallard said.

Earlier, the Green Party said the Government should discourage New Zealand companies from doing business with Myanmar.

Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said it was "shocking" that the Government did not oppose local companies working with an oppressive regime.

"This is not the way to conduct a moral foreign policy," he said.

"If New Zealand truly supports democracy in Burma, we should heed the call of imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi not to do business with the regime."

Locke said other countries such as the United States and European Union members had various sanctions against the Myanmar regime including freezing junta financial assets.

He said New Zealand should not wait for the United Nations to act because China would veto any sanctions resolutions.

- NZPA