International mining and development: lesson learnt from Mekong

Extraction of natural resources such as mining is limited within a particular geographical area. Often its activities are conducted in or near communities and have direct or indirect impacts on community resources, capabilities and well-being, thus leading to a state of poverty, violent behavior and resentment by communities towards business, and other forms of human deprivation. By adopting within-text literature analysis, this paper explores actions and consequences of mining multinational corporations (MNCs) in two countries in Mekong region, Thailand and Lao PDR. The focus is given to key corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions by international mining companies in both countries. This paper also examines key principles of CSR programs from mining MNCs, particular their activities on socio-economic and environmental development. Data is collected from two major sources (1) annual and CSR reports from mining MNCs, and (2) key academic journals in international business and social studies. This paper argues that CSR approaches by mining MNCs can affect the outcomes of the programs in terms of MNCs’ relationship with key stakeholders in the communities, practices of the CSR projects, and the improvement of socio-economic and environmental conditions in Thailand and Lao PDR.