Increasing transparency in Vietnam’s extractive industry (14/5)
14/05/2013 - 27 Lượt xem
It is seen as an effective tool
against corruption and will help governments gain profits and develop
sustainable extractive industries. As Vietnam is in the negotiation
process to join EITI, Vietnam Economic News’ Bao Ngoc interviewed the
British Ambassador to Vietnam Antony Stokes about the issue.
Can you tell us some features about EITI?
EITI was launched and
implemented in 2002 on the initiative of the former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair. Nowadays, 37 countries with over 70
companies within the extractive industries have participated the EITI.
Wide implementation of the initiative in such a short period of time was
a clear proof to show the benefits that EITI could bring to the
countries and companies working in this industry.
In your opinion, why should Vietnam join EITI?
I suppose EITI will bring great
benefits to Vietnam. The first reason is that Vietnam is very rich in
natural resources which are under the ownership of the entire people.
Therefore, participating in EITI will help Vietnam fight against
corruption in the extractive industry, bringing more benefits in the
exploitation of this mineral resource. To implement EITI, there needs to
be a mechanism to guarantee efficient participations of all related
parties such as the State, enterprises, mining companies, social
organizations, the Fatherland Front and other civil organizations. With
the aim to increase information transparency, when EITI is put into
operation, the government and enterprises have the responsibility to
provide transparent information about their activities, helping to
enlighten the “black sides” of the industry. Thus, we would get to know
how the industry operates and how the governments could keep better
control on enterprises, helping them earn higher profits and developing
sustainable extractive industries.
The second reason is despite
many achievements in the current growing economy, Vietnam is also facing
difficulties and barriers such as the corruption or the climate change,
resulting in lower competitiveness for the country. Therefore, in my
opinion, if Vietnam joins EITI, surely the transparency will not only
help Vietnam deal with its current economic issues but also turn Vietnam
into a more attractive destination to foreign investors as Vietnam’s
Trust Index after joining EITI will surely increase, helping Vietnam
accelerate negotiation process of Free Trade Area agreements with other
partners.
The key issue of EITI is to make information more transparent. However, who will check the authenticity of those information?
During EITI implementation
process, not only the government but all parties will check the
information crosswise instead of hiring independent consultants to
monitor and check the information. Of course, it will take some charges
to do this job but the revenue from EITI would be much more than the
spending on information verification and operation of this mechanism.
As one of the first countries
that launched the EITI. What measures did Britain take to support
Vietnam in its negotiation process to join the initiative?
EITI’s participation process
brings a lot of challenges. Therefore, we supported the Vietnamese
Government by hiring independent consultants to find out Vietnam’s
advantages and difficulties on its way to join the initiative. This
process has been carried out for a long time with the supports of the
British Government and many other organizations such as the World Bank.
We can affirm our continuous supports for the Vietnamese Government
during its accession to EITI.
Vietnam
is located within the Asia Pacific belt which has a quite diversified
mineral resources with over 5,000 mines and mineral spots of over 60
different kinds of minerals, including many big reserve and high value
resources such as bauxite, coal and titanium. Therefore, Vietnam needs
to work out an appropriate strategy for exploration, exploitation and
processing of these resources to create more jobs for laborers and
produce high quality products for domestic and international trading,
meeting the industrialization requirements and contributing to the
country’s sustainable socioeconomic development. Vietnam is also
targeting to develop the mining industry with modern technology,
environmentally-friendly to guarantee a sustainable development, meeting
domestic demand and for export. Therefore, the EITI is considered as an
option that contributes to the efficient management of sources of
revenues from the natural resources./.
Source: VEN
Source: VEN
