Phnom Penh - Cambodia has been repeatedly urged to join the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to help it
properly manage expected lucrative oil revenues, outgoing German
ambassador to Cambodia Pius Fischer said Thursday.
Speaking at a Club of Cambodian Journalists roundtable discussion
attended by dozens of local reporters, the ambassador again voiced
Germany's concern that the country's economic boom was not trickling
down to the rural poor and said it was vital that oil revenues were
used to their best advantage to help society.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), founded
in 2002, supports improved governance in resource-rich countries
through the verification and full publication of company payments and
government revenues from oil, gas, and mining, according to its
website.
It works to build multi-stakeholder partnerships in developing
countries in order to increase the accountability of governments.
'There is definitely a need to invest in Cambodia's human capital
so Cambodia has the capacity to remain competitive in the globalized
world,' Fischer said.
'More attention should be given on social equities because as the
disparities between the urban rich and rural poor are growing this
could lead to social conflict.
'With the beginning of the exploitation of Cambodia's oil and
natural gas resources expected to begin probably by 2008 or 2009, it
would be important also to develop concepts of how the revenue from
these natural resources would be harnessed and used for the benefit
of the Cambodian population
'In this context Cambodia's development partners have repeatedly
suggested that Cambodia adopt the principals of the EITI. These
principals, if they were observed by Cambodia, would be very
beneficial for Cambodia's economy,' he said.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen branded people who claimed
endemic corruption could hijack potential oil revenues 'stupid' and
said countries critical of how resources might be plundered would be
better served making positive input and ensuring their oil companies
negotiated fairly with Cambodia.
It was unclear if EITI is going to be included in the draft law on
oil currently being written by the government and government sources
close to the oil industry have declined to comment until the law is
unveiled later this year.
Critics have voiced fears that corruption and a lack of
transparency, if unchecked, could send Cambodia the way of Nigeria
and fail to benefit more than an elite few, instead of making it the
success story of other oil-rich nations in the region like Brunei.
EITI is a global initiative strongly supported by oil producing
countries including Britain and Norway with around 20 members
worldwide including Chad, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Timor Leste, Mongolia,
Bolivia and Peru. Neither Nigeria nor Venezuela are members.
Fischer ends his mission in Cambodia in mid-July and will then
become German ambassador to Mongolia.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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