The complications facing western companies looking to enter Myanmar have been laid bare after Coca-Cola disclosed a local business partner is linked to the much-criticised jade industry. Daw Shwe Cynn, a director of the Coca-Cola Pinya Beverages Myanmar joint venture, is also a director and shareholder of Xie Family Company, which is active in the domestic jade business but is barred from exporting to the US under industry-wide sanctions....Coke said “comprehensive” due diligence on potential business partners in Myanmar in the years leading up to launching operations there in 2013 had not raised any sanctions-related concerns about Shwe Cynn or its partner company Pinya Manufacturing, in which she has a 37.7 per cent stake. Coke said it had completed “another level” of investigation this year after Global Witness approached it with information about Shwe Cynn’s involvement in Xie Family Company, which “reportedly operates jade mines in Myanmar”. Coke said a number of official records on the ownership of Xie Family were made public only late last year. It did not comment on whether Shwe Cynn had earlier disclosed all her commercial interests, or been asked to....Myanmar’s jade industry is fuelled by Chinese demand and is worth billions of dollars a year but it has been plagued by allegations of smuggling, corruption and rights abuses in the northern mining region.