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Azerbaijan becomes the first EITI Compliant country

16 February 2009 14:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vugar Israfilov, Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA-Economics. Azerbaijan has announced it became the first EITI Compliant country among 25 candidate countries after the countryâ€™s new status was approved at the 4th Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) annual conference in Doha, said the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ).
The initiative encourages governments, extractive companies, international agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations and others with an interest in the sector to work together to develop a framework to promote transparency of payments and revenues.
The EITI Global Conference will bring together an estimated 600 leaders and officials from government, industry and institutions from February 16-18.
Shahmar Movsumov, Chairman of the National Committee on Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a member of the EITI Board and the Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan, is attending the EITI Conference in Qatar.
The tenth EITI reporting cycle is under way in Azerbaijan.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative increases transparency over payments by companies to governments and to government-linked entities, as well as transparency over revenues by those host country governments.
EITI received official endorsement from the World Bank Group, announced December 9, 2003. There are 24 countries with Candidate status.