ArmInfo. Mining companies have the will to introduce the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards. Senior Mining Specialist of the World Bank (WB) Kirsten Hund expressed this opinion, answering the question of ArmInfo, on January 30 in the framework of the conference dedicated to the first national report of the republic on EITI.
According to her, the final validation of the process will be undertaken by the EITI secretariat. Nevertheless, the expert states the real progress towards the implementation of international standards of transparency of the sector. "I work with EITI in various countries of the world, and I can say that it deserves attention that Armenia is making great progress on this issue," she said. In general, the expert is satisfied with the process of implementing the EITI standards in Armenia.
At the same time, the civil society of Armenia hopes that starting from 2020, within the framework of the accession of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), full access to information on the real beneficial ownershipers of companies in the sector will be provided.
As member of the EITI multi-beneficiary group on behalf of the public Harutyun Movsisyan noted to ArmInfo , it is thanks to the implementation of the Initiative standards that today geological information about the subsoil can be found on a single online platform, data on the legal framework of mining companies are available. The annual national report also reflects the financial statements of companies and data on the scale of production, which makes their activities as transparent as possible.
Until 2020, as noted by Movsisyan, thanks to the draft law developed by those responsible for the sector, full transparency of information about the real owners of the mines will be ensured. At this stage, a member of the multi-beneficiary group EITI refrains from predicting how much the document will help to identify the true beneficiaries, noting, "time will tell."
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 a policy for the transparency of the Armenian mining industry.