Exam practice question (Bangladesh)

FURY AT BANGLADESH MINE SCHEME (25 marks)

A huge open-cast coal-mining project by a British firm, which would involve moving the homes
of up to 130 000 workers in Bangladesh, is at the centre of an international row. The company,
GCM, plans to extract up to 570 million tonnes of coal in a project that will displace people
from Phulbari, in north-west Bangladesh. A river will have to be diverted and the mangrove
forest, which is a world heritage site, would be destroyed too.

The project has attracted widespread hostility. In protests against the scheme 18 months ago,
three people were killed in an area now said to be controlled by the armed forces. Many
international campaign groups have written to the Asian Development Bank demanding that it
turns down a $200 million loan for the project.

The World Development Movement is claiming that the social and environmental damage can
never be repaired if the scheme receives government approval. A spokesperson for GCM, on the
other hand, stressed the importance of jobs, incomes and exports to one of the world’s poorest
countries.

1.Differences between internal and external stakeholders

Stakeholders are groups of people who can be affected by and therefore have an interest in
any action taken by an organisation.
- Internal stakeholders are people who own or work for a business, For example, shareholders,
managers, workers and, in this case, the spokesman for GCM.
- External stakeholders are people who do not work for or own a business, but related to the
business. For GCM these include the government, the Asian Development Bank, the World
Development Movement,
local residents, international campaign groups, local newspapers and TV channels, local
farmers and landowners.

2. The benefits of any two stakeholder groups resulting from this mine project
shareholders- if the project make a huge success, the value of the business also increases. In
turn, the value of shares also increases, so that they can make more profits
workers- the workers can get more salaries, especially British workers

3. The disadvantages to any two stakeholder groups resulting from this mine project
local residents- if the government do not provide any compensation for them, they will have
nowhere to live.
local farmers and landowners- they are forced to move to the other region despite their thinking.
They have nowhere to work, and their lands are also loss.

4. Discuss the ways in which GCM could reduce the impact

The government should compensate to all whom the place the government takes belongs to.
Workers who had to move their houses because of mine should be compensated with building
new better houses for them.
Landowners who have their land forcibly purchased: offer more than the current market price;
arrange meetings to explain that they will be compensated.
There will be farmers whose land now has no water due to relocated river. The government
should offer compensation or jobs in the new mine to family members.