81 FR 30597 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 95 (May 17, 2016)

The Department of State has submitted the information collection described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 we are requesting comments on this collection from all interested individuals and organizations. The purpose of this Notice is to allow 30 days for public comment.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 95 (Tuesday, May 17, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30597-30598]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-11707]


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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice: 9562]


30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Reporting 
Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma

ACTION: Notice of request for public comment and submission to OMB of 
proposed collection of information.

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SUMMARY: The Department of State has submitted the information 
collection described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
for approval. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 we 
are requesting comments on this collection from all interested 
individuals and organizations. The purpose of this Notice is to allow 
30 days for public comment.

DATES: Submit comments directly to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) up to June 16, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Direct comments to the Department of State Desk Officer in 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB). You may submit comments by the following 
methods:
     Email: [email protected]. You must include the 
DS form number, information collection title, and the OMB control 
number in the subject line of your message.
     Fax: 202-395-5806. Attention: Desk Officer for Department 
of State.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Direct requests for additional 
information regarding the collection listed in this notice, including 
requests for copies of the proposed collection instrument and 
supporting documents, to Stacey May, U.S. Department of State, DRL/EAP 
Suite 7817, 2201 C St. NW., Washington, DC 20520, who may be reached on 
202-647-8260 or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
     Title of Information Collection: Reporting Requirements on 
Responsible Investment in Burma.
     OMB Control Number: 1405-0209.
     Type of Request: Extension of a Currently Approved 
Collection.
     Originating Office: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and 
Labor Multilateral and Global Affairs (DRL/MLGA).
     Form Number: No form.
     Respondents: U.S. persons and entities engaged in new 
investment in Burma in an amount over $500,000 in aggregate, per OFAC 
General License 17, which authorizes new investment in Burma.
     Estimated Number of Respondents: 150.
     Estimated Number of Responses: 150.
     Average Time per Response: 21 hours.
     Total Estimated Burden Time: 3,150 hours.
     Frequency: Within 180 days of new investment in Burma over 
$500,000, annually thereafter.
     Obligation to Respond: Mandatory.
    We are soliciting public comments to permit the Department to:
     Evaluate whether the proposed information collection is 
necessary for the proper functions of the Department.
     Evaluate the accuracy of our estimate of the time and cost 
burden for this proposed collection, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used.
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected.
     Minimize the reporting burden on those who are to respond, 
including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.
    Please note that comments submitted in response to this Notice are 
public record. Before including any detailed personal information, you 
should be aware that your comments as submitted, including your 
personal information, will be available for public review.

Abstract of Proposed Collection

    Section 203(a)(1)(B) of the International Emergency Economic Powers 
Act (IEEPA) grants the President authority to, inter alia, prevent or 
prohibit any acquisition or transaction involving any property, in 
which a foreign country or a national thereof has any interest, by any 
person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of 
the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with 
respect to any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source 
in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national 
security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. See 50 
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.
    In Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, the President determined 
that the actions and policies of the Government

[[Page 30598]]

of Burma, including its large-scale repression of the democratic 
opposition in Burma, constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to 
the national security and foreign policy of the United States, declared 
a national emergency to deal with that threat, and prohibited new 
investment in Burma. In subsequent Executive Orders, the President 
modified the scope of the national emergency to address additional 
concerns with the actions and policies of the Government of Burma. In 
Executive Order 13448 of October 18, 2007, the President modified the 
emergency to address the continued repression of the democratic 
opposition in Burma, manifested in part through the commission of human 
rights abuses and pervasive public corruption. In Executive Order 13619 
of July 11, 2012, the President further modified the emergency to 
address, inter alia, human rights abuses particularly in ethnic areas.
    In response to several political reforms by the Government of Burma 
and pursuant to authority granted by IEEPA, the Department of the 
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a general 
license (GL 17) on July 11, 2012 authorizing new investment in Burma, 
subject to certain restrictions and conditions.
    In order to support the Department of State's efforts to assess the 
extent to which new U.S. investment authorized by GL 17 furthers U.S. 
foreign policy goals of improving human rights protections and 
facilitating political reform in Burma, GL 17 requires U.S. persons 
engaging in new investment in Burma to report to the Department of 
State information related to such investment, as laid out in the 
``Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma,'' 
(hereafter referred to as the ``collection''). This collection is 
authorized by section 203(a)(2) of IEEPA, which grants the President 
authority to keep a full record of, and to furnish under oath, in the 
form of reports or otherwise, complete information relative to any act 
or transaction referred to in section 203(a)(1) of IEEPA.

Methodology

    The Department of State will collect the information requested via 
electronic submission.

Additional Information

    It is the overarching policy goal of the U.S. Government to support 
political reform in Burma towards the establishment of a peaceful, 
prosperous, and democratic state that respects human rights and the 
rule of law. In the past, some foreign investment in Burma has been 
linked to human rights abuses, particularly in the area of natural 
resource development in ethnic minority regions. For example, some 
foreign investments have entailed acquisition and control of land in 
disputed ethnic minority territories exacerbating or contributing to 
both social unrest and armed conflict and leading to adverse community 
and/or environmental impacts. Increased military/security presence, 
particularly in disputed ethnic minority areas, to provide security for 
foreign investment projects is reported to have led to seizures of farm 
land, involuntary relocations, forced labor, torture, summary 
execution, and sexual violence.
    The collection will help the Department of State, in consultation 
with other relevant government agencies, to evaluate whether easing the 
ban on investment by U.S. persons advances U.S. foreign policy goals to 
address the national emergency with respect to Burma. In addition, the 
Department of State will use the collection as a basis to conduct 
informed consultations with U.S. businesses to encourage and assist 
such businesses to develop robust policies and procedures to address 
any potential adverse human rights, worker rights, anti-corruption, 
environmental, or other impacts resulting from their investments and 
operations in Burma. The Department of State will use the collection of 
information about new investment with the Myanmar Oil and Gas 
Enterprise (MOGE) to track investment that involves MOGE and to 
identify investors with whom it may be beneficial to have targeted 
consultation on anti-corruption and human rights policies. The public, 
including civil society actors in Burma, may use publicly available 
information resulting from the collection to engage U.S. businesses on 
their responsible investment policies and procedures and to monitor the 
Burmese government's management of revenues from investment.
    U.S. persons to whom this requirement applies will be required to 
submit a version of the report to the U.S. Government for public 
release, from which information considered in good faith to be exempt 
from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 4--i.e. trade secrets or 
commercial or financial information that is privileged or 
confidential--may be withheld. The Department of State will make this 
version of the report publically available in order to promote 
transparency with respect to new U.S. investments in Burma. In the 
past, the absence of transparency or publicly available information 
with respect to foreign investment activities in Burma has contributed 
to corruption and misuse of public funds, the erosion of public trust, 
and social unrest in ethnic minority areas and has led to further human 
rights abuses and repression by the government and military. Public 
disclosure of certain aspects of the collection therefore will promote 
the policy of transparency through new U.S. investment, a key U.S. 
foreign policy objective in Burma.
    Burmese civil society groups, particularly those representing 
ethnic minority communities, have requested that the Department of 
State make public certain information obtained through the collection 
on investments purportedly made for the benefit of the Burmese people, 
as a means of holding their own government accountable. Nobel Peace 
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's democratic 
opposition party and recently elected to a seat in Burma's parliament, 
also underscored the importance of transparency in her recent remarks 
in Bangkok, noting that she did not want ``more investment to mean more 
possibilities for corruption.'' This was among the most specific of the 
recommendations she made to the international community, stressing that 
``Transparency is very important if we are going to avoid problems in 
the future . . . So whatever investments, governmental agreements, 
whatever aid might be proposed, please make sure that it is 
transparent, that the people of Burma are in a position to understand 
what has been done, and how and for whom the benefits are intended.''
    Therefore public release of portions of this collection is aimed at 
providing civil society this type of information to both ensure the 
transparency of U.S. investment in Burma and to encourage civil society 
to partner with their government and U.S. companies towards building 
responsible investment, which ultimately promotes U.S. foreign policy 
goals.

Susan O'Sullivan,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 2016-11707 Filed 5-13-16; 4:15 pm]
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