Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

182 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
2.3.3 Government Support and Investment
There may be a number of reasons to focus a campaign on
the government in the company’s home country. One is that
the company may be receiving direct support from the government
in question. Another is that it may be receiving more
indirect support, via public funding. This form of support
comes either through the likes of export credit guarantees or
via funding from development banks, such as the World Bank.
Political Support
States can supply political support to companies in a
number of ways. As part of the neo-liberal agenda, governments
in the “Global North” have long been calling for less
developed countries to privatize public companies and drop
their support for “protected infant industries.” At the same
time, those same countries do all they can to promote their own
companies as part of a pro-“business agenda.” These include
promoting corporations engaged in extractive industries.
The Canadian government has been perhaps the most bold
in recent years, which is causing a fierce debate on whether this
is the correct path to follow. One of its most contentious areas of
support has been through its development arm, the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA), which is directly
brokering partnerships between large development organizations
and Canadian mining companies. 20 Interestingly, there
has also been criticism of CIDA, among others, for funding
programs of Canadian indigenous representatives to promote
negotiations with mining companies. 21
The Canadian government, however, is far from alone in
this type of support. The Governments of the United Kingdom
and Australia are among those who have been criticized for
such support, especially through their development departments.
22 It should also be remembered that in the rise of the
new BRIC 23 nations, many of the extractive industry interests
are much more directly linked to their governments. This is