Georgetown: A delegation led by Raphael Trotman, Minister of Natural Resources, and including Ministry of Natural Resources staff Ms. Shondell France, Dr. Rudy Jadoopat and Ms. Diane Barker, National Director and Deputy Director of Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) respectively, Government representative of the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), Ms. Gillian Pollard and Civil Society representative, Ms. Gomin Camacho represented Guyana at the EITI 2019 Global Conference from June 18-19, 2019 in Paris, France.
The conference was held under the theme “Open Data, Build Trust” and aimed to reinforce the importance of multi-stakeholder dialogue and openness in addressing challenges, provide an opportunity to discuss emerging trends and best practices in the good governance of natural resources, and examine the role of the EITI in the good management of the extractive sector among others. At the conference, Guyana was lauded for its success and steady progress made since 2016 and invited to be a member of a global network on contract transparency that is being spearheaded by Mexico.
While at the conference, the delegation showcased Guyana’s progress towards EITI implementation at a Guyana country booth and during a country pitch session where members shared highlights from Guyana’s first EITI report and fielded questions from the audience. The delegation also made good use of the opportunity to network with representatives from countries in the region as well as internationally.
Raphael Trotman was also one of the main speakers at an Executive Session themed “Opening Contracts 2021- Ensuring a Good Deal” along with Hon. Doto Biteko, Minister of Mines, Tanzania and representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines as well as Total and Publish What You Pay (PWYP). During his remarks, Minister Trotman noted some of the underlying challenges of contract disclosure and candidly shared Guyana’s experience in this regard. The Minister went on to state that though government was initially resistant to public disclosure of petroleum contracts particularly due to security and sovereignty concerns, in hindsight, the decision to do so was in the overall best interest of both the state and populace.
He further emphasized the strong commitment of H.E President David Granger and the government, to open and better governance and the government’s continued quest to ensure that the tenets and principles of the EITI are firmly rooted in Guyana before ‘first oil’ in 2020.
Guyana’s objective of pursuing an accelerated procedure for acceding to the EITI standard was affirmed by the Cabinet in November 2016 following on the discovery of petroleum and has progressed steadily with the formation of the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), the submission of an application for formal membership, the acceptance of that application, and most recently, the completion of the 1st country report for fiscal year 2017.
The Government of Guyana remains committed to promoting transparency in the natural resources sector for the benefit of all Guyanese and to supporting initiatives that build the capacity of stakeholders.
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