Suu Kyi Urges Oil Majors to Meet IMF Norms for Myanmar Business

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said global energy companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and BP Plc (BP/) must adhere to international investment rules if they decide to team up with the country’s national oil producer.

Investment must promote democracy and transparency, Suu Kyi said today on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Andrew Marr Show. She urged investors to press the national oil monopoly to sign up to International Monetary Fund guidelines on foreign investment and observe those standards themselves.

Myanmar is wooing companies to invest after about five decades of military rule left it among Asia’s poorest countries. The U.S. and European Union eased sanctions after April by- elections gave Suu Kyi’s party 43 of 45 seats, allowing it some representation in the 664-member parliament still dominated by President Thein Sein.

“Transparency is the key,” Suu Kyi said from Oslo. “Without this transparency we can never tell whether these investments are going to benefit the people or just the already privileged few.”

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest and is making her first trip to Europe since 1988, arrives in the U.K. next week. Prime Minister David Cameron was one of the first Western leaders to call for sanctions to be eased in April to encourage further moves toward democracy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gonzalo Vina in London at gvina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net