Governance

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative* (EITI) is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organizations, which supports improved governance in resource rich developing countries through the disclosure and verification of company payments and government revenues in the extractives industries sector (oil, gas and mining).

It is widely recognized that while large public sector revenues from extractive industries hold great potential for economic growth and poverty reduction, if transparency and accountability are weak, extractive industries can lead to exacerbation of poverty, corruption, and conflict.

The EITI principles are currently supported by 23 so-called “candidate countries”, i.e., countries that are undergoing the EITI validation process. Asian candidate countries include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Timor Leste.

In addition, the EITI principles are supported by 38 international oil, gas and mining companies, 70 global investment institutions and hundreds of civil society organizations.

ADB endorses EITI

In February 2008, ADB endorsed the EITI, joining other international organizations supporting EITI such as the African Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Read the news release.

By endorsing EITI, ADB encourages its developing member countries to adopt the principles of the Initiative.

These include the recognition that natural resource wealth should be translated into equitable economic growth, and that the process of creating the necessary transparency and accountability frameworks to facilitate this must respect the sovereignty of countries and existing contracts and laws.

EITI presentation at ADB

On 7 August 2008, Mr. Sam Bartlett, Regional Director for Asia of the EITI International Secretariat gave a presentation [ PDF: 516kb | 22 pages ] at ADB on the “Outlook for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Asia”.

Read a summary of the EITI briefing [ PDF: 30kb | 2 pages ].