lynas lesson on asian risks

http://rareearthfuture.com/2012/11/07/lynas-lesson-on-asian-risks/

LYNAS LESSON ON ASIAN RISKS
The Australian Financial Review today used the unexpected delays to the Lynas Malaysian project to highlight the risks in doing business in Asian countries.
It says Lynas “has discovered the hard way how treacherous it can be to try to push through a controversial and environmentally sensitive production facility in the midst of a democratic election that could toss out the longest serving ruling party in Asia.”
Elaine Prior of Citigroup published a report on the “extremely challenging” risks of doing business in developing countries. Countries in the region were graded according to the perceived risks: India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam were considered very high risk; Malaysia was judged a medium risk.
Such a judgment of Malaysia’s approval processes and attitude to foreign investments is very damaging to the country. Right now, the government should be doing everything in its power to facilitate investments such as the LAMP. Instead, it has meekly allowed SMSL to use the court process to halt the start of production.
Stringent conditions were imposed during the approval process to protect the population and environment. They have all been complied with. All relevant Malaysian agencies have given their tick of approval to the project. An independent international review has also said the LAMP is safe and world’s best practice.
Opposition is confined to SMSL who continue to make hysterical, unscientific and discredited objections to the project. These claims are blatantly false, masquerading as heroic efforts to protect the environment when they are nothing more than political propaganda.
The legal system has an opportunity on Thursday to disassociate itself from being used in such a shameless way by SMSL. At the very least, it should lift the injunction on the Operating Licence and allow production to start.
Anything else will show the world that Malaysia is unsupportive of foreign investment.