Don Weinland
The Phnom Penh Post
A new US commitment to oil and mining transparency may push the Kingdom closer to a similar agreement, Cambodian experts have said.
US President Barak Obama announced earlier this week that the US would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an implementing country, according to a White House statement. The pledge, the first from a G8 country, commits the United States to public disclosure of revenues from oil, gas and mining assets.
Cambodia considered EITI membership in 2007 but has since declined to sign on.
The signatory status of the world’s biggest oil consumer, however, could result in more pressure on the Kingdom to do the same, Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) chairman Mam Sambath said yesterday.
“The US decision to join the EITI is a powerful endorsement of EITI and its guiding principles, not just within Cambodia but worldwide,” Mam Sambath said.
“As one of the world’s most powerful countries and most vibrant economies, the US has tremendous credibility in the global marketplace.”
EITI hopes other countries will follow in the United States’ footsteps, EITI spokesman Anders Tunold Krakenes said yesterday.
To date, Cambodia has not published any payments from oil or mining in EITI reports, he added.
While officials at the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority did not return requests for comment, Mam Sambath said the government declined to join the initiative because it claimed to already follow government-decreed transparency and accountability principles.
But he claimed EITI membership boosts investor confidence in ways that Cambodia’s own transparency standards do not.
“In short, it’s good business to be part of EITI.”
“CRRT still sees tremendous merit in joining the EITI as tangible evidence that Cambodia embraces the standards of principles set by the global community as those which best suit the needs of all involved stakeholders.”
Cambodia is not alone in abstaining from membership. The UK declined EITI membership this week, saying it would be inappropriate to reveal domestic financial dealings with extractive companies, the Guardian reported.
Officials at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment.
4 comments:
that's it, everybody in cambodia has to support business and financial transparency. that's one way to curb corruption, etc, you know!
10;56pm
i'm too sick & tired of reading your always claimed to know everything. why don't you write truly that you are yuon sucker yuon animal bastard, yuon leach..
10:56 PM
How can it can pause corruption in Cambodia if Yuon are behind stealing on the top of that?
As long as Yuon exist, no countries near by can have peace. Yuon are very savage and they are the most evils ever exist on the planet.
While UK has a different kind of interest to stay out of the EITI but for Cambodia it is merely for stealing before any kind of consideration. Cambodia has no exploration to secure, so their interest is purely for corruption and stealing from the nation. If anyone here knows any better, please tell me...
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