From left to right EITI International Executive Director Mark Robinson, EITI International Director for Asia and the Pacific and the Country Lead for Papua New Guinea Mr. Emmanuel Bria and PNG EITI Head of National Secretariat Mr. Lucas Alkan at the press conference.
EITI International team comprised of the EITI Executive Director Mark Robinson, EITI Director for Asia and the Pacific Mr. Emmanuel Bria and the Country Lead for Papua New Guinea has successfully completed its findings of Papua New Guinea's second EITI Validation ( Country Assessment Report) with its formal announcement on Friday 11th of November ,2022 at Treasury office Port Moresby.
The Validation result comes after a month of consulting with various players consisting of the representatives from the extractive companies, government departments, extractive state-owned entities and civil society bodies to provide leadership and guidance in guiding the implementation of the EITI Best Practice Standard in PNG's mining and Petroleum sector.
PNGEITI Head of National Secretariat Mr. Lucas Alkan welcomed the EITI Board's candid assessment and decision on PNG's efforts to implement the EITI, describing it as fair assessment, taking into account the efforts put in by multi stakeholder Groups over the years since 2013 when the government signed up to implement the EITI.
"We consider the second country assessment as consolidating the correct actions that have been taken and the work current in progress. PNG has made significant progress in implementing the EITI relative to other economies around the world that are implementing the same EITI standards".
Giving his assessment so far regarding EITI's role in Papua New Guinea the Executive Director of EITI International, Mr. Mark Robinson stated that PNG needs more transparency in revenue collection for public information, the room for contract transparency and lastly for the beneficiaries in the extractive sector to benefit well in their resources. Other key success area noted is the well structured electronic data currently available by the Mineral Resource Authority that provides good management of the mineral resources.
"EITI has to be meaningful to the local people and how it will benefit them socially and economically in a proper way".
EITI Director for Asia Pacific Mr. Emmanuel Bria explained further that EITI is an independent National Secretariate that works in line to make sure the government's local content is met along with the extractive sector (oil, gas and mineral) in a more transparent way to benefit its citizens according to the set international standards and its jurisdiction.
PNG operationalized EITI implementation in 2015 and published its first report in 2016. Since then, it has so far published seven country reports covering successive financial years. The 2021 and 2020 reports are now being worked on and are expected to be published by December this year.
