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The international conference “Impact of the EITI on Business Climate: International Experience” was held at the RSPP on December 3, 2014. More than 70 representatives of interested Russian and foreign companies, governmental authorities, as well as expert institutions particicpated in the discussion.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global coalition of governments, companies and civil society working together to improve openness and accountable management of revenues from natural resources. While the EITI is implemented by governments - 48 to date - it depends on the strong support from the operating companies. Oil, gas and mining companies report their payments to government on an annual basis. They also help govern the EITI process both locally and internationally.
RSPP President Alexander Shokhin in his welcome remarks noted that over 90 of the world's largest oil, gas and mining companies support the EITI, including RSPP and International Council for Cooperation and Investment (ICCI) members, for example the UK companies BP and Shell; Canadian Kinross; US Alcoa, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil; French Total; German Volkswagen. However, at the moment there are no Russian companies supporting the EITI. Therefore the main conference objective was to discuss with the Russian companies the EITI standards and requirements, principles of collaboration with implementing countries, as well as possible benefits and restrictions.
Russian G20 Sherpa, Deputy Head of the Presidential Experts’ Directorate Svetlana Lukash informed the participants about the discussion on the EITI at the G20 Brisbane summit. Svetlana Lukash emphasized that Russia supports the initiatives on extractive industries transparency, as stated many times within such multilateral formats as the G8 and G20. Russia encourages its national companies to support the EITI.
Head of the EITI International Secretariat Jonas Moberg emphasized the EITI benefits for companies. According to him, first, the EITI is a forum for an open dialogue of business with governmental authorities and society, second, the EITI standard`s implementation positively contributes to companies` reputation, third, EITI promotes a favorable investment climate and improves access to finance.
The conference was attended by Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chairman of National Azerbaijan Committee on EITI, Member of the EITI Board Shahmar Movsumov who shared insights from Azerbaijan`s experience on the EITI implementation. He informed the participants that Azerbaijan joined the EITI in 2003, and since then 17 reports have been released with the data on extractive industries revenues which helped improve national transparency in this sphere. According to Mr. Movsumov, even in case of a possible withdrawal from the EITI, Azerbaijan will continue to follow the EITI principles, e.g. to publish reports which provide the increasing transparency of the extractive industries.
An online presentation was made by Bazarbai Nurabaev, Chairman of the Committee of Geology and Subsoil Use of the Ministry of Investments and Development of Kazakhstan, Member of the EITI Board. Mr. Nurabaev told about the mechanisms of preparing and presenting the national EITI reports as well as the work in this area in the whole, including the dialogue with non-governmental organisations.
Director of the Moscow Representative Office of Kinross Gold Corporation Lou Naumovski presented Canadian experience, highlighting the milestones in the process of elaborating alternative approaches to ensuring transparency and the approach key elements.
President of the Diamond Chamber of Russia Sergey Oulin presented insights on the lessons from the Kimberley process for the EITI.
The conference outcomes will be discussed at the next meeting of the Russian inter-agency working group on assessing various aspects and risks related to the EITI participation, which is scheduled for the second decade of December 2014.
Jonas Moberg`s presentation "EITI. A good investment climate through transparency"