New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Norwegian Ministry of Finance has excluded the Chinese company Dongfeng Motor Group Co. Ltd from the Government Pension fund – Global, for selling military trucks to Burma, a statement on Friday said.

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance in the statement on Friday said it has excluded Dongfeng Company based on the advice from the Council on Ethics that the Pension Fund cannot invest in companies that sell weapons and other military equipment to Burma.

“We cannot finance companies that support the military dictatorship in Burma through the sale of military equipment,” Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Minister of Finance said in the statement.

Halvorsen said, it is the first time that the exclusion criteria regarding the sale of weapons and military materials to Burma has been applied since the Finance Ministry amended its ethical guidelines in October 2008.

The Council on Ethics refers that a large number of military trucks manufactured by Dongfeng have been observed at the border crossing between China and Burma. And in reply to the Norges Bank’s inquiry, Dongfeng revealed that a subsidiary company sold 900 trucks to Burma during the first half of 2008, the statement said.

The Council on Ethics also found that the trucks have been adapted for military purposes and have significant military applications and notes that deliveries of trucks is ongoing and that there will be deliveries of spare parts in the future. It concluded that investment in Dongfeng, therefore, is in contravention of the ethical guidelines.

Based on the advice of the Council on Ethics, the Ministry of Finance instructed Norges Bank on 19 December 2008, to exclude Dongfeng from the Government Pension Fund - Global and gave 28 February 2009 as the deadline for completion.