A second European engineering company has decided to quit the troubled African state of Sudan for humanitarian reasons.
Siemens, Europe’s largest electronics and electrical engineering group,
will leave Sudan by the end of June. Chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld
said the decision was taken for human rights rather than security
reasons.
The German company has been targeted by institutional investors – some
of them US state pension funds – to cease operations in Sudan, where it
has been working on power stations, telecoms infrastructure and medical
devices.
Its reputation has recently come under attack in several areas, most
notably corruption. The company’s telecoms division is under
investigation both in Germany and in the US for an alleged
multi-million euro bribery scandal.
The Swiss engineering group ABB also recently halted work in Sudan
because of the country’s increasing political and social instability,
although it said it may return if conditions improve (EP8, issue 9, p2). Like ABB, Siemens says it will continue supporting humanitarian work in Sudan.
