More foreign firms leaving Myanmar

The announcements Friday by TotalEnergies and Chevron have swelled the ranks of foreign firms that have quit Myanmar after the February military coup.

As the civilian death toll from the military crackdown has surpassed 1,500 people, activists have ratcheted up pressure on foreign firms.

Investors piled into the country after the military relaxed its iron grip in 2011, paving the way for democratic reforms and economic liberalisation in the country of more than 50 million people.

They poured money into telecommunications, infrastructure, manufacturing and construction projects.

Now they face either pulling up sticks like TotalEnergies and Chevron, suspending operations, or continuing with business as usual.

The decisions by TotalEnergies and Chevron to leave were significant, as the more than $1 billion in fees and taxes they paid to operate the Yadana gas field in the Andaman were Myanmar's single largest source of foreign currency revenue, according to Human Rights Watch. Last year, Norway's Telenor announced it would sell off its Myanmar subsidiary, which was one of the nation's largest mobile phone networks, although the deal has yet to be finalised. This week, it sold its stake in a Burmese digital payments service.

British American Tobacco, which employed more than 100,000 people in Myanmar before the coup, pulled up sticks in October. French renewable energy firm Voltalia has also left. Japanese carmaker Toyota, which was due to launch manufacturing at a Myanmar factory last year, put the project on hold.

Myanmar factories became suppliers of many popular clothing brands over the past decade, but groups such as Italy's Benetton stopped placing new orders after the coup.