ArmInfo. Armenia has chosen the right path towards full transparency in the mining industry. Deputy Head of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Eddie Rich answering the question of ArmInfo, stated on January 30 at a conference on the first national report of the republic on EITI.
According to him, Armenia consistently implements EITI standards. At present, representatives of the civil society of Armenia through the online platform can familiarize themselves with the legal framework of mining companies, their financial and tax reporting. And the data placed in the system, as Eddie Rich pointed out, will also make it possible to check whether the taxes paid are adequate to the scale of production.
This year, an assessment will be made of where the country is going in the context of compliance with EITI standards. "At the moment there are no glaring omissions, but a full assessment will be given later," Rich added.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an international standard for transparency and accountability in the extractive industries, oil and gas. Armenia became the 52nd country that will follow the path of implementing the standards of the Initiative - on March 9, 2017, the candidacy of Armenia was approved in Colombian Bogota, after which, over the next 18 months, she pledged to submit the first EITI report, which will be approved according to the standards of the international initiative. The Government of the Republic of Armenia cooperates with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank (WB), etc. in developing the policy of transparency in the Armenian mining industry.
EITI is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society, investors and international organizations. It was opened in 2002 on the initiative of then British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a conference on sustainable development in Johannesburg.
The initiative's goal is to increase transparency and improve the quality of management in the extractive industries through periodic publication of reports, adherence to standards and strengthening institutional capacity. Under the Initiative, extractive companies must disclose information about the size of their tax and non-tax payments to governments, and governments must publish reports on the income they receive. The transparency of information on the amount of income received by the EITI standards allows parliaments of countries, non-governmental organizations, as well as citizens themselves to control the activities of companies and the Government. Such civilian control not only complicates abuses in this area, but will also contribute to the more efficient development of countries as a result of improved economic conditions and more active attraction of foreign direct investment. To date, EITI covers 52 countries that submitted 332 fiscal reports, which brought a profit of $ 2.3 trillion to the budget of the initiative.