PRESS RELEASE AUGUST 19, 2024 Singapore Stock Exchange-listed company Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (ETC) has paid Myanmar army S$5.57M since coup attempt The Singapore based company Emerging Towns & Cities (ETC) is continuing to fund the Myanmar army as it commits war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity. ETC’s latest financial disclosure, for the 6 months to June 2024, shows the payment of a land lease premium of S$900,000 for Golden City, a real estate complex in Yangon on land leased from the Myanmar army’s office of the quartermaster general. Earlier financial reports show the payment of S$1.68 million in 2022 and S$2.99 million in 2023, bringing the total paid to the Myanmar military to S$5.57 since its illegal coup attempt. ETC did not register any payments in 2021. The office of the quartermaster general is under the office of the commander-in-chief of the army, Soe Win, a war criminal. In its December 2021 sanctions designation, the UK government described the quartermaster general’s office as “play(ing) a crucial role in procuring equipment for the Myanmar Armed Forces, including ammunition, bombs and jet fuel. This directly enables serious human rights violations, and the repression of the civilian population including peaceful protestors and ethnic minorities”. On the same day, the office of the quartermaster general was also sanctioned by the USA and Canada. The latest payments to the Myanmar army come as ETC has suspended trading for more than three years and has stated that it was in the process of divesting from Myanmar. In February 2021, Justice For Myanmar published a report into ETC’s payments to the Myanmar army and the implications for the Singapore Stock Exchange, finding that payments to the army included a US$6.8 million “land use premium” and annual payments of US$2.8 million. The deal is under a build-operate-transfer contract, where the army receives the building as an asset at the end of the maximum 70-year term. Total payments to the army over the full 70 years would amount to US$191.1 million. 1