NGOs' Confrontation Risks

British American Tobacco PLC
28 April 2005





              The risks of confrontation in place of co-operation

Jan du Plessis, British American Tobacco's new Chairman, has challenged the NGOs
who commit their resources to attacking multinational companies - often the very
companies working hardest to address their concerns - yet refuse to engage
constructively with business for progress.

Speaking at his first Annual General Meeting as the company's Chairman, he said
of such NGOs:  "To those who criticise yet refuse to engage, is your insistence
on confrontation rather than co-operation really the best way to achieve your
own goals?"

And he warned of the real risk that "frequent and sometimes ill-founded attacks
on large and committed companies will scare off those companies with limited
resources and who fear that they can only lose by embracing CSR.  Yet it is
often smaller businesses, and local businesses in developing countries, that
should focus most on raising standards."

Mr du Plessis added: "Some of these criticisms seem to stem from an ideology
that big business can rarely, if ever, do any good.  Yet as Kofi Annan, the UN
Secretary General, said about achieving sustainable development: 'It is only by
mobilising the corporate sector that we can make significant progress.'

"Alienating business is not the pathway to sustainable development," he said, "
and I speak as someone with a fair understanding of - and passionate interest in
- the development issues facing Africa."

Mr du Plessis said it is right and necessary to tackle the huge problems facing
many developing countries: poverty, lack of skills, lack of social
infrastructure and lack of opportunity.  But this "vast and complex challenge"
needs constructive inputs from governments, communities, NGOs, development
organisations and business.

He championed the real contributions of multinational businesses to local
development goals.  "The presence of multinationals in developing nations is
helping governments to build on all three pillars of sustainable development -
economic, social and environmental.  A lasting way to address poverty is by
steadily creating employment, economic security and self-sufficiency.
Ultimately, only economic growth can provide the means to pay for environmental
improvements and social progress."

"It is frequently multinational companies," he added, "that introduce skills,
training and international standards, for example in labour practices, reducing
environmental impacts, improving workplace safety and providing community
support."

His remarks came as Friends of the Earth, Action on Smoking and Health and
Christian Aid - amongst the NGOs most reluctant to engage in dialogue with
business - criticised the Group's commitment to CSR.  All three NGOs frequently
attack multinational companies' corporate responsibility work as 'greenwash'.

Mr du Plessis thanked the NGOs who do come to dialogue and work alongside Group
companies in projects on the ground.  The key point, he said, is that few
companies seeking to embrace today's changing ideas of corporate responsibility
can do so without constructive engagement, dialogue and partnerships.

He added that he found it ironic that companies embracing CSR are not only
criticised by some NGOs, but by serious business commentators who argue that
companies' only proper goal is the honest and legal pursuit of profit.  The case
had been strongly put that business achieves far more for society by being left
to pursue enlightened commercial self interest than by attempting to embrace any
other ways of serving society.

 "Getting CSR right is not easy," said Mr du Plessis, "especially for businesses
like ours in controversial sectors.  However, criticisms will not deter us.  Our
door is open, including to our critics.  We genuinely want to listen and find
solutions.  Like any large organisation, I am sure we deserve criticism from
time to time.  We take well-founded rebukes seriously and work to put right
things that really are wrong, and where we have a mandate to do so."

"There may be some anti-business campaigners whose agenda is not served by
business acting responsibly," he said.  "But I cannot believe that this is what
those who really seek progress actually want."

                                   ENQUIRIES

                David Betteridge, Teresa La Thangue, Emily Brand

                     British American Tobacco Press Office

                        [phone] (24 hours)

Notes to editors:

•       British American Tobacco p.l.c. will publish its fourth Social Report in
July.

•       The Group's approach to accountability and responsibility continues to
be endorsed by independent external bodies:

         British American Tobacco is the only tobacco business included in the
Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.

         The UK's Business in the Community has ranked the Group amongst the '
Top Companies That Count' in its most recent Corporate Responsibility Index.

         The United Nations Environment Programme and the SustainAbility
organisation last year ranked the Group fourth best in the world in
non-financial reporting.

•       British American Tobacco is the world's most international tobacco
group.  It does business in over 180 markets, employs over 90,000 people and
works with some 250,000 supplier farmers worldwide.  In 2004, the Group had a
global volume of 853 billion cigarettes and its business enabled governments
worldwide to gather over £22 billion a year in taxes, some 15 times the Group's
profit after tax.

•       Through its Business Principles, Mutual Benefit, Responsible Product
Stewardship and Good Corporate Conduct, British American Tobacco is committed to
defining and living by principles of corporate responsibility for a
controversial industry.




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