AP news
Posted: 2008-04-04 13:01:41

OSLO, Norway (AP) – Norway’s vast fund for investing its oil wealth is now barred from owning shares in companies that sell arms to Myanmar, expanding limits imposed last year on direct investments in the Southeast Asia nation’s government bonds and 1,200 companies, the finance ministry announced Friday.

However, a statement said a preliminary review suggests there are currently no such companies in the fund’s portfolio, making the ban a symbolic one.

Myanmar, also called Burma, has been ruled by a military dictatorship since 1962, and last year staged a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in which at least 31 people died and hundreds were arrested.

Norway, a major exporter of oil and natural gas, sets aside surplus central government revenue in the Government Pension Fund-Global – formerly the oil fund – for foreign investment to avoid overheating the domestic economy of the Nordic nation of 4.7 million people. It is currently worth about 2 trillion kroner ($388 billion).

In 2004, the government imposed ethical standards on the funds investments, and created a national Council of Ethics to review company records in such areas as labor rights, environmental issues and production of nuclear weapons and cluster bombs.

In mid-2007, Norway imposed a ban on the fund owning Myanmar government bonds and later on investments in government-controlled companies and those engaged in the extraction of timber, metals, minerals and gemstones. A news release said that ban covered about 1,200 companies.

“The government has now chosen to implement a prohibition on investing in companies selling arms or weapons technology to a country whose sovereign bonds are excluded from the investment universe. This means that the Fund shall not invest in companies selling arms to the Burmese regime,” a news release said,

Since 2004, Norway has sold off its investments in 27 companies for ethical reasons.