Guyana Wants To Join EITI

The photo above is of the current members of the EITI Board — 2013-2015/16 — elected at the EITI Members Meeting on May 22, 2013. Photo courtesy of EITI.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Feb 27, (CMC) – Guyana says, it is seeking to become a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The Ministry of Natural Resources said, as a result, the country was represented at the Seventh World Summit of EITI in Lima, Peru, earlier this week.

The three-member delegation, led by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, “participated in plenary and break-out sessions and had valuable interactions with several country delegations that shared experiences about the application process, and importantly, provided pledges of support for Guyana’s journey towards attaining and sustaining candidature”.

The EITI is a global standard to promote the sustainable management of natural resources. It was acceded to by 51 countries, which have agreed to establish, uphold and advocate for the tenets of good governance in how their natural resources are managed.

At its core, the EITI promotes the belief that natural resources belong to the people and are to be extracted and managed on behalf of the people, both for current and future generations.

Countries, on assuming membership, coordinate their activities through a tripartite Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) that comprises representatives of government, industry and civil society.

Guyana is at present finalising the composition of its MSG and making preparations for establishing a fully functioning secretariat to advance the work.

In its quest to embrace good governance standards in the regulation of the extractive industries, Guyana has been receiving guidance and support from the EITI’S Norway-based secretariat and the Trinidad & Tobago Chapter (TTEITI), the statement noted.

It said, that Guyana, with an economy heavily based on extractive industries, and soon to become an oil and gas producing nation, propelled the government’s desire, in 2015, to give its approval for Guyana’s membership application to be expedited, and to date, two seminars have been convened while a third is scheduled for March 4, this year.

The March seminar will be conducted in conjunction with the Trinidad and Tobago EITI Centre and the University of the West Indies.