Sophist
Platinum Member
- Mar 26, 2009
- 4,484
- 3,400
......Finally, I would like to say something about the financial crisis and its implications for EITI and related transparency initiatives. The financial crisis and global recession have changed the landscape for extraction.
§ Investors have become severely risk averse. Instead of investors competing to pour money into resource rich countries, countries and companies will have to compete to attract needed capital.
It would be a mistake for countries like Liberia or Zambia to try to compete by giving away their recent hard-won gains in establishing stronger tax structures for extraction and re-negotiating unfavorable deals. The commodity downturn is likely to be temporary, but the deals bind you for decades. Dont give away the store for short-term gains. Better to leave a valuable asset in the ground than accept terms that will yield your country little revenue or other benefits over the long term.
Do compete on transparency, accountability and good resource governance.
§ Information will be at a premium in this new market climate. Investors will want to see your books and they will want to know that the numbers can be trusted. They will want to see political stability.
§ Financial regulators also will demand more disclosure from governments and companies that want to raise funds in their markets.
I believe that in this difficult financial climate, resource rich countries that implement EITI will have a competitive edge. EITI not only makes vital information public and verifiable. It also promotes a level of trust among the countrys stakeholders that encourages investment.
I am aware of two other exciting initiatives to increase transparency:
· The US Congress is considering requiring companies that raise capital in our markets to publish what they pay to governments in all countries of operation.
· Second, the International Accounting Standards Board may include country- by- country payments data in its new reporting standard for extractive industries.
So, dont compromise your principles of transparency, accountability and good governance, but rather, become more competitive by embracing those principles and embedding them more deeply.
Thank you.
§ Investors have become severely risk averse. Instead of investors competing to pour money into resource rich countries, countries and companies will have to compete to attract needed capital.
It would be a mistake for countries like Liberia or Zambia to try to compete by giving away their recent hard-won gains in establishing stronger tax structures for extraction and re-negotiating unfavorable deals. The commodity downturn is likely to be temporary, but the deals bind you for decades. Dont give away the store for short-term gains. Better to leave a valuable asset in the ground than accept terms that will yield your country little revenue or other benefits over the long term.
Do compete on transparency, accountability and good resource governance.
§ Information will be at a premium in this new market climate. Investors will want to see your books and they will want to know that the numbers can be trusted. They will want to see political stability.
§ Financial regulators also will demand more disclosure from governments and companies that want to raise funds in their markets.
I believe that in this difficult financial climate, resource rich countries that implement EITI will have a competitive edge. EITI not only makes vital information public and verifiable. It also promotes a level of trust among the countrys stakeholders that encourages investment.
I am aware of two other exciting initiatives to increase transparency:
· The US Congress is considering requiring companies that raise capital in our markets to publish what they pay to governments in all countries of operation.
· Second, the International Accounting Standards Board may include country- by- country payments data in its new reporting standard for extractive industries.
So, dont compromise your principles of transparency, accountability and good governance, but rather, become more competitive by embracing those principles and embedding them more deeply.
Thank you.
