Thursday, 5 September 2019
Tigran Avinyan Chairs Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Meeting
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan chaired the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Multi-Stakeholder Group meeting, which was held on September 5.
To begin with, Tigran Avinyan felicitated the meeting participants on the award given to our country by the Presidency of the June 18-19 EITI World Conference in Paris. Armenia has been a member of EITI for only two and a half years, and winning such recognition among the 52 member countries is a great achievement and, at the same time, an extra burden of responsibility.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the EITI seeks to enhance transparency and accountability in extractive sectors, as well as to introduce and strengthen good governance practices.
The EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group came as a platform to ensure well-advised public debate and decision-making for all parties. Taking this into account, the Deputy Prime Minister attached importance to ensuring the government’s active involvement in the development of sector-specific policies and legislation. Tigran Avinyan noted that efforts are currently underway to set up a system for revealing the real owners. In particular, the EITI Interdepartmental Task Force on Disclosure of Real Owners is in process of drafting sub-legal acts providing for the discovery of real owners.
The concept paper on EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group Approach to Responsible Mining was approved during the meeting, which outlines the key areas proposed by the Multi-Stakeholder Group for introducing a responsible mining culture.
The process of the first international EITI ratification in Armenia, the selection of an independent administrator for the Second EITI National Report and other topical issues were discussed during the meeting.
