CSRWire: ICMM has reiterated its support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) at the fifth global conference in Paris today.

Over the last two years significant advances have been made by the many partners in the EITI process, which now brings together 33 countries around the world.

The EITI process has led to increased transparency within the extractives sector by encouraging companies to disclose revenue payments made to governments and in turn requiring countries to publish the payments received.

"The success of the initiative lies in its tripartite nature, bringing together governments, civil society and industry at every level of the process," said Anthony Hodge, President of ICMM, who also sits on the EITI Board. "Being part of the EITI is a substantial commitment by countries and ICMM commends all those governments that have signed up to the process."

At the country level, EITI marks a significant advance not only because figures that were previously hidden are now being published -- but because it is creating new alliances that serve to strengthen mining's contribution to socio-economic development.

Over the last two years the EITI has continued to attract significant countries to its ranks including Zambia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia. It has seen an increasing number of mining countries coming to the fore -- with Liberia, Mongolia and Ghana leading the way to compliance. It has worked through some difficult validation issues and overall, struck the right balance between enforcement of the rules and pragmatic recognition when substantive progress has been made.

Over the next few months, some tough decisions must be faced regarding countries whose validation processes are running out of time. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to expect that a significant number of new countries will reach compliance. ICMM would like to see more resource-rich countries move beyond rhetoric and implement EITI themselves. We welcome Norway's lead in this respect as the first OECD country to reach compliance status yesterday.

The growing industry recognition of the importance of transparency is reflected in the threefold increase in mining company representatives at this year's conference compared with the last conference held in Qatar in 2009. ICMM members are convinced of the value that effective EITI implementation can deliver both globally and at the country level, and welcome the growing support for the EITI from other companies in the sector.

ICMM has supported the EITI process since its inception in 2002 and all ICMM member companies are required to report on mineral revenue payments in participating countries. This commitment is outlined in ICMM's Position Statement on Transparency of Mineral Revenues.

"The conference marks a significant milestone in the fight against corruption," said Anthony Hodge. "In the future, the focus will rightly shift to measuring the impact of the EITI as part of an array of governance reforms, and to ensuring that recognition as a compliant country is seen as the end of the beginning -- not the beginning of the end -- for countries on a journey towards greater transparency and accountability."

Yesterday, the EITI Board confirmed a set of rule changes which shows a capacity to learn from experience and improve over time. The Board must also reinforce support for local tri-partite processes to ensure that compliant countries continue to innovate, improve the quality of their reporting and publish information more widely.

Finally, it is important to ensure that new legislation requiring mandatory global reporting of payments to governments by US-listed oil, gas and mining companies does not distract from the EITI's in-country processes. "It is in-country where transparency efforts will deliver most," he said.

About ICMM

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) was established in 2001 to act as a catalyst for performance improvement in the mining and metals industry. Today, the organization brings together 18 mining and metals companies as well as 30 national and regional mining associations and global commodity associations to address the core sustainable development challenges faced by the industry.

ICMM serves as a change agent -- not in areas affecting competitive positioning, but related to our members' social and environmental responsibilities where collaboration makes sense. Our vision is one of leading companies working together and with others to strengthen the contribution of mining, minerals and metals to sustainable development. www.icmm.com