On 14 January 2020, the Council on Ethics recommended that Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd be excluded from investment by the Government Pension Fund Global due to an unacceptable risk that the company is contributing to serious human rights violations. Hikvision is a global Chinese technology company that provides products and services in the field of surveillance technology. The recommendation concerns Hikvision’s role in the mass surveillance of the population in the Xinjiang region of China.
On 11 September 2020, the Council received a letter from Norges Bank stating that the Bank will not process the recommendation because the company is no longer in the Fund’s portfolio. The Council therefore decided to withdraw its recommendation on 15 September 2020.
Hikvision was therefore not formally excluded from investment by the GPFG.
The company has subsequently informed the Council on Ethics that it is no longer involved in the five public-private contracts in Xinjiang that formed the basis for the Council’s assessment. As Hikvision exited the portfolio in 2020 without a formal exclusion decision, the Council will not conduct a renewed assessment of the Company. The current list of excluded companies is available on NBIM’s website.