The Coca-Cola Foundation announced plans to make social and economic investments in the rapidly changing country of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company’s charitable giving arm, is making a grant of US $3 million to support women’s economic empowerment job creation initiatives throughout the country. The Company is also developing plans to begin business locally in Myanmar as soon as the U.S. government issues a general license allowing American companies to make investments, which is imminent.

Coca-Cola’s social efforts in Myanmar are in line with the Company’s long-standing commitment to support local communities in every market it serves. The Coca-Cola Foundation has partnered with Pact, a non-governmental organization working to promote health, economic empowerment and food security in 26 developing countries, to support the development of a WORTH program in Myanmar. The WORTH program operates by gathering 20-25 women in small groups, across hundreds of villages, to develop community banks that lend money to fund business start-ups and entrepreneurial efforts.

Photo: Coca-Cola bottles,
Pact’s efforts in Myanmar are consistent with Coca-Cola’s existing global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women across its global value chain by 2020 through an initiative known as 5 BY 20. WORTH will initially fund women interested in supporting a variety of businesses and Coca-Cola expects the program to eventually identify women entrepreneurs interested in becoming independent shopkeepers and distributors of Coca-Cola products.

Coca-Cola’s planned entry into Myanmar, following the suspension of sanctions, will be governed by its well-established global standards for corporate ethics including strict adherence to its global human and workplace rights policy, supplier guiding principles, code of business conduct, and anti-bribery policies, each of which are available on the Company’s website.

Coca-Cola has not done business in Myanmar for more than 60 years. To establish local operations, the Coca-Cola system anticipates making significant investments in Myanmar over the next 3-5 years. While some products will initially be imported from neighboring countries, Coca-Cola plans to establish local business relationships and work with local customer partners as part of the long-term economic development of Myanmar. The Company has a general practice of operating as a local business in every market it serves, including selling, distributing, manufacturing and hiring locally.

Currently, Myanmar is one of only three countries on the globe where Coca-Cola does not do business. The other two are Cuba and North Korea.