  |
US launches drive for oil-revenue transparency in Asia-Pacific
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 06 16 06
The United States has proposed an anti-graft initiative for Asia-Pacific economies aimed primarily at transparency of petroleum-derived revenue, an official said Thursday.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), already adopted by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, was introduced at a recent senior officials meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"It was actually an initiative that the United States raised because this is an issue that has been discussed in G8 and overall, we like to try to do anything that we can to keep transparency on everybody's radar screens," US ambassador to APEC Michael Michalak told reporters.
He said leaders of the 21 APEC economies, including US President George W. Bush and his counterparts Hu Jintao of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, could adopt the initiative at their annual summit in Vietnam in November.
Michalak said there "may be a statement of support in the leadership declaration that EITI is an important initiative to improve transparency" in oil and other mineral industries prevalent in developing countries.
"It is chance for APEC to show some leadership on an issue that we think is central to economic development," he said.
The United States has introduced a paper on the initiative to be discussed in detail at the next APEC senior officials meeting in September which would set the pace for the leaders' agenda.
Launched by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, the EITI aims to improve the quality and transparency of information available about revenues from the oil, gas and mining industries and how those funds are spent.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
AFP 15 1900 GMT 06 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels