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...most backward parts of one of the world's least developed nations, the Ramu mine has emerged as an acute example of resentment against China Inc. In 2004 P.N.G. Prime Minister Michael Somare returned home from Beijing, triumphant at having snared the country's largest foreign-investment project to date. The euphoria was short-lived. Landowners brandished slingshots and announced they wouldn't sign off on their tribal territory being used for mineral extraction, no matter what document was signed in China's Great Hall of the People. Environmentalists cried foul over plans to deposit mine waste in the sparkling...
...sites, is now closed as a result of the civil war, which officially ended in 2000.) Separately, the national government was forced to declare a state of emergency in Southern Highlands province three years ago when protests over a multinational consortium's proposed gas pipeline reached a crescendo. (The project has since stalled...
...Ramu NiCo unveiled the first-ever bridge over the Ramu River, eliminating the need for a perilous canoe crossing. The company also paved a ribbon of concrete through the forest, one of the few roads in a tropical country where asphalt is almost as rare as snow. Although the project has displaced thousands of landowners, it has also provided badly needed infrastructure to the area. What just a few years ago was a 10-hour bush walk from the mine site to the river has now been cut to a 30-minute drive. (See "World Economic Forum: Can China Compete...
...village, a collection of shacks fronting a bay teeming with dolphins and tuna, community elder Mou Bilang complains that most villagers haven't been compensated for the loss of land once used to plant cash crops, save a $125 "dust payment" issued as an apology for the dirt the project has kicked up. "The Chinese promised us free electricity, free water supply, free job training for our boys," Bilang tells me. "But they have delivered nothing." Tensions reached a crisis point five months ago, when a local youth was accidentally injured by a Chinese-driven tractor. More than 100 villagers...
...Trying Game To its credit, Ramu Nico has done far more than the average Chinese state-owned enterprise to repair its image and court community approval. Unlike most other Chinese firms, the company responds promptly to international press queries and has published a comprehensive project sustainability report. Ramu NiCo has an English-language website that bandies about the proper catchphrases for a FORTUNE 500 subsidiary: sustainable development, competitive benefits, cross-cultural human resources. The glass-sheathed Ramu NiCo headquarters in the town of Madang, where the fastest pace of life is set by swarms of flying foxes, boasts human-resources...